The demonstration yesterday in Brasilia, featuring a giant inflatable doll of a soldier and coffins meant to represent Rousseff's death, was a rare public display of support for a military takeover in Latin America's biggest country, where a two-decade dictatorship ended in 1985.
"We back military intervention as a form of cleansing so that we can put the country back in order, call elections and that way regain democracy," said one protester, a member of a far-right "Patriotic Camp" set up near Congress. He would only give his first name Rodrigo.
But the far-right were a minority in a generally more mainstream crowd of about 3,000 people who gathered to demonstrate against Rousseff. Most at the protest called on Congress to impeach the president, whose second term has been marred by a huge corruption scandal and steep slide into economic recession.
"The idea of a military coup makes us sick because we have nothing to do with that group," said Renan Santos, head of the Free Brazil Movement, which was also at the protest outside Congress.
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