Brazil street protests demand Rousseff impeachment

Brasila: Tens of thousands of protesters across Brazil called on President Dilma Rousseff to step down

on Monday, blaming her and the leftist Workers' Party for the corruption and economic troubles besetting Latin America's

biggest country.

Huge crowds chanting "Dilma out!" and singing the national anthem paraded through the capital Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, many of them dressed in the yellow national football shirt.

Police said some 137,000 people took part, with the number sure to rise significantly as another protest got under way in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city and financial capital. Organizers put the early figure at 225,000. In Rio, the 2016 Olympic host city, an Olympic bicycling test event had to be rerouted because of the demonstrations along the Copacabana Beach seafront, all part of the nation's third big street protests against Rousseff in 2014.

Crowds were boisterous but peaceful, watched at a discreet distance by squads of paramilitary police. "We want things to change and if the people don't go in the street that's impossible," said retired engineer Elino Alves de Moraes, 77, in Brasilia, calling for Rousseff and her "gang" to be jailed.

Less than a year into her second term, Rousseff is on the ropes as the world's seventh-largest economy slides into recession.

Austerity measures have replaced the economic go-go years fueled by Chinese demand for commodities, while an ever-expanding bribes and embezzlement probe centered on state oil company Petrobras is ripping through the country's elite.

In April, at least 600,000 people turned out against Rousseff and her Workers' Party (PT) and more than a million in March.

The extent and intensity of Sunday's protests will be key in determining support for calls from some in Congress for

Rousseff to be impeached.

Globo news site reported that the president was planning to discuss the situation with ministers later Sunday, but had not decided whether to speak publicly.