Brazilians demonstrate in favour of Rousseff’s impeachment

Brazilians turned out to the streets of Copacabana on Sunday (July 31) to protest in favour of the impeachment of suspended President Dilma Rousseff as Rio de Janeiro prepares for the start of the Rio 2016 Olympics in less than a week.

The protest comes a day after the date was set for Rousseff´s trial, which will begin August 29 and conclude by September 2, in order to define whether she or Interim President Michel Temer will travel to the G-20 summit in China on September 6.

Protest organiser Carlos Jose Vasconcelos said they hoped to put pressure on the President of the Supreme Federal Court, Enrique Ricardo Lewandowski, to make an impartial decision on whether Rousseff should be impeached for allegedly breaking budget laws.

“We are coming close to the date for the impeachment vote. This movement here is a warm up, let’s say, so that we can pressure the Senate and pressure (Enrique Ricardo) Lewandowski, who has been partial in his decisions, and show that the Brazilian people will in no way accept Dilma staying in power,” said Vasconcelos.

Among banners calling for “Dilma no more”, Alberto Cerqueira Lima, waved an image of Rousseff’s face inside a toilet seat with a sign saying “Don´t forget to flush.”

“We need a new start, the structure of Brazilian politics has started overflowing, we need to clean up the mess and start afresh, new proposals. It is just incredible what we read every day in the newspapers, corruption and more corruption, we can’t take anymore, we have to flush it away and start anew,” said Lima.

Brazil’s former president, and Rousseff’s mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will also stand trial for obstruction of justice, documents from a federal court in Brasilia showed on Friday.

Lula was previously under investigation in various jurisdictions in a sprawling corruption probe focused on state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) but is now officially a defendant.

Dressed in prisoner’s garb and identifying himself as Lula, one protester said the former president was just beginning to pay the price.

“It is the worst thing ever, I am starting to pay for everything I did to Brazil in the past, all the manoeuvring and the schemes that I put together, and not just me, the political class as a whole. They are starting to get everyone and that is what is fair. We may fall from left to right, but the important thing is that we can make the most of everything in this marvellous country,” said ´Lula´.

Rousseff has confirmed she will not attend the August 5 Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games which will run until August 21.