Demonstrators across Brazil demand president's impeachment

(Image credit: Twitter.com/CTVNews)

published 13 April 2015

Police estimate that 275,000 Brazilians marched in San Paulo on Sunday, calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

Protests occurred in major cities across Brazil, CNN reports, and it was the second day of anti-government demonstrations to take place in less than a month. A major issue is that most of the politicians accused of being part of a kickback scheme at Petrobas, the state-run oil company, are either allies or members of Rousseff's Workers Party. Rousseff, whose approval rate stands at 13 percent, served as chairwoman for several of the years when the scheme allegedly took place.

The president says that while she believes people have the right to protest, she did not know anything about the corruption. Rousseff was re-elected in October with more than 50 percent of the vote, but "many things have changed since the election," Janina, a protester in Sao Paulo, told CNN. "[Impeachment] is our last hope."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.