In Sao Paulo, the most populous city and an opposition stronghold, a sea of people filled the central avenue for a protest that authorities had said could draw a million protesters.
Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians angered by corruption and deep recession flooded the streets of Latin America's biggest country to call for removing President Dilma Rousseff.
Chanting "Dilma out!" and often draped in the bright yellow and green national flag, protesters across Brazil sought to pressure Congress into accelerating impeachment proceedings against the leftist leader yesterday.
In Sao Paulo, the most populous city and an opposition stronghold, a sea of people filled the central avenue for a protest that authorities had said could draw a million protesters.
"We are at a decisive moment for our country. We are going to start the change now," said Rogerio Chequer, leader of Vem Pra Rua, one of the main organisers of the demonstrations.
Helio Bicudo, a prominent lawyer who once supported the government but helped initiate the current push for impeachment said "Brazil can't take being looted and robbed anymore, it can't take more incompetence and corruption." In Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Summer Olympics in August, protesters singing and dancing to samba songs swarmed along the beachfront avenue in Copacabana.
Organisers said that hundreds of thousands attended, but police would not confirm this and there was no immediate way to verify conflicting claims.
About 100,000 people marched in the capital Brasilia, a police source told AFP. Some 400 cities all across Latin America's biggest country were staging protests.
Rousseff and her Workers' Party are struggling to hold on to power in the face of a probe into a massive bribes and embezzlement scandal at state oil company Petrobras.
Prosecutors' highest-profile target is Rousseff's key mentor in the Workers' Party, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Prosecutors have filed money laundering charges and requested he be put into preventative detention. Lula vigorously denies the allegations.
Rousseff is also blamed by many for the worst recession in decades, with the economy shrinking 3.8 percent last year and the country losing its investment grade credit ratings.
With divisions intensifying across the country, Rousseff appealed for demonstrators to refrain from violence -- and they did.
In Sao Paulo, many protesters brought their children, as if on a family outing, while in Rio demonstrators paused between singing samba tunes to buy coconut water from street hawkers.
Still, there was no disguising the anger.
"We need to get rid of Dilma, the Workers' Party, the whole lot," said Rio resident Maria do Carmo, 73, who was carrying a Brazilian flag. "It's not their time anymore."
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