PHOTOS: Anti-Impeachment Minority Builds Roadblocks, Burns Tires in Brazil

Twitter/@alimacvoltou
Twitter/@alimacvoltou
Frances Martel

The Senate of Brazil has temporarily deposed President Dilma Rousseff, replacing her for 180 days with her vice president until her impeachment trial concludes.

While millions of Brazilians peacefully took to the streets demanding impeachment before the process began, protests this week in favor of Rousseff grew violent, targeting journalists and police and causing severe traffic delays in major cities.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, a coalition of leftist groups including the Movement of Landless Workers, the Brazil Popular Front, and supporters of Rousseff’s socialist Workers’ Party (PT) closed major streets in states like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and Pernambuco, with both human bodies blocking the way and fires designed to block traffic. O Globo reports that socialist protesters blocked traffic in 17 of the nation’s states. Three journalist organizations – the Radio Broadcasters Association, the Brazilian Television (Abert), and the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) – issued a statement condemning “acts of violence and intimidation against reporters” at these protests.

Protesters posted images of their efforts on Twitter using the hashtag #OcupaTudoContraOGolpe (Occupy Everything Against the Coup):

TOPSHOT - A man takes a picture to a line of policemen as he demonstrates against the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in front of the National Congress in Brasilia on May 11, 2016. Brazil's Senate opened debate Wednesday ahead of a vote on suspending President Dilma Rousseff and launching an impeachment trial that could bring down the curtain on 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America's biggest country. Even allies of Rousseff, 68, said she had no chance of surviving the vote. / AFP / ANDRESSA ANHOLETE (Photo credit should read ANDRESSA ANHOLETE/AFP/Getty Images)

ANDRESSA ANHOLETE/AFP/Getty Images)

BRASILIA, BRAZIL - MAY 11: An anti-impeachment demonstrator is frisked after clashes with police at a demonstration against the impeachment outside the National Congress building where a special session is being held in the Brazilian Senate determining whether to accept impeachment charges against embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on May 11, 2016 in Brasilia, Brazil. A loss for Rousseff could force her to step down from the presidency for 180 days and face trial on charges of allegedly manipulating government accounts. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Amid growing frustration with the protests’ obstruction, some in Brazil chose to defy them. A video circulated in Latin American media Wednesday of a fiery pro-Dilma roadblock broken by a bus driving through it at top speed in the Brazilian state of Paraná:

The protests in favor of Rousseff are markedly more violent than the protests in March calling for a beginning to the impeachment process, which attracted 3.6 million people nationwide. Those same protesters also came out to celebrate the impeachment itself, though the mood at anti-Rousseff events was markedly more cheerful:

People demonstrate in support of the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in front of Planalto Palace in Brasilia, on May 10, 2016. Rousseff vowed Tuesday to serve out her full term, on the eve of a Senate vote on opening an impeachment trial that could mark her last day in office. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks and unauthorized state loans to boost public spending during her 2014 re-election campaign. She argues the same accounting techniques were used regularly by previous governments and fall far short of an impeachable offense. / AFP / VANDERLEI ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images

People demonstrate in support of the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in front of Planalto Palace in Brasilia, on May 10, 2016. Rousseff vowed Tuesday to serve out her full term, on the eve of a Senate vote on opening an impeachment trial that could mark her last day in office. Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks and unauthorized state loans to boost public spending during her 2014 re-election campaign. She argues the same accounting techniques were used regularly by previous governments and fall far short of an impeachable offense. / AFP / VANDERLEI ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images



Photos: Reuters

Speaking before the presidential palace this morning, Rousseff asserted that he was “a victim of a judicial and political farce” and encouraged Brazilians to oppose the new government, which she threatened could “turn to repression against the opposition.” She has been impeached for using executive orders to take out loans meant to mislead foreign investors into thinking the Brazilian economy was in a better state than it actually was; she insists she has done nothing illegal and, in her speech Thursday morning, railed against politicians, asserting, “I have no offshore accounts; I have never taken bribes.”

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