Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered on Rio de Janeiro's iconic Copacabana beach on Friday (August 5) to display their anger at the country's leaders just hours before the 2016 Olympic Games kicked off. <br /> <br />Blocking traffic on the curving boulevard beside the beach and holding banners reading "Fora Temer" or "Temer Out", the demonstrators called on centre-right interim President Michael Temer to be removed from office. <br /> <br />Temer took over the post when leftist President Dilma Rousseff was put on trial in the Senate for breaking budget rules, and has taken Latin America's largest economy - and one of the world's most unequal countries - to the right. <br /> <br />After seven years of preparations for Friday's opening at the Maracana stadium, organizers hope the start of the Games will turn the page on months of bad publicity for Rio, from polluted water to faulty plumbing at the athletes' village and worries about the Zika virus. <br /> <br />Having won the Olympics in 2009 during an economic boom, Brazil has since slipped into its worst recession in decades and a political crisis that has deeply divided the nation of 200 million people.
