Joao Vaccari, the treasurer of Brazil’s governing Workers' Party, has been formally charged with corruption.

Aside from Vaccari, 26 people have been charged in relation to a massive corruption scandal linked to the state-owned oil company Petrobras.

Brazil has been wracked with protests as hundreds of thousands of people have marched in cities across the country against perceived corruption.

A great number of the protesters are demanding the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, who was in charge of Petrobras during the years when the corruption was supposed to have taken place.

President Rousseff, who has not been charged with any corruption, spoke on Monday, announcing that she would send anti-corruption measures to Congress this week and that she backed political reforms.

No actual details were given.

As reported by The BBC, Rousseff said, "Many people from my generation gave their lives so that people could express themselves on the streets."

Before her political career, the president was a left wing guerrilla who was in fact imprisoned for three years during military rule and tortured for her beliefs.

Brazilian prosecutors have found definite links to Rousseff’s party and the scandal, saying that there is ample proof that as a Workers’ Party treasurer Joao Vaccari had asked for donations from former Petrobras services division chief Renato Duque and other executives at companies who then gained Petrobras contracts.

During the course of the investigation into Petrobras, dozens of executives from six of Brazil's largest engineering companies as well as two former Petrobras managers have been indicted for money laundering, bribery and for funneling money from the oil company to politicians.

Opponents of Rousseff argue that she must have known about the kickback scheme seeing as she served as chair on Petrobras's board during the time when the kickback were taking place.