Brazil’s Senate
impeaches Rousseff
August 31, 2016
TAGS Brazil impeachment
Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff was stripped of the
country’s presidency on Wednesday in a
Senate impeachment vote ending 13 years
of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest
economy.
Rousseff, 68, was convicted by 61 of the
81 senators of illegally manipulating the
national budget. The vote, passing the
needed two-thirds majority, meant she was
immediately removed from office.
Cheers — and cries of disappointment —
erupted in the blue-carpeted, circular
Senate chamber as the verdict flashed up
on the electronic voting screen.
Pro-impeachment senators burst into a
rendering of the national anthem, some
waving Brazilian flags, while allies of
Rousseff stood stony faced.
“I will not associate my name to this
infamy,” read a sign held up by one
senator.
Brazil’s first female president, holed up in
the presidential palace on the outskirts of
the capital Brasilia with close aides, was
expected to make a statement soon after
the vote.
The veteran center-right politician, whom
Rousseff accuses of using the
impeachment process to mount a coup,
was then to leave for a G20 summit in
China.
About 50 leftist demonstrators gathered
outside the presidential palace to show
their support.
“We are protesting against the coup and
fighting for democracy,” said 61-year-old
farmer Orlando Ribeiro.
In the center of the capital, extra security
and the closing of avenues near the
Senate caused massive traffic jams. Police
said they were preparing for large protests
later in the day.
Anti-Rousseff anger
Rousseff, from the leftist Workers’ Party, is
accused of taking illegal state loans to
patch budget holes in 2014, masking the
country’s problems as it slid into its
deepest recession in decades.
She told the Senate during a marathon 14-
hour session on Monday that she is
innocent and that abuse of the
impeachment process put Brazil’s
democracy, restored in 1985 after a two-
decades-long military dictatorship, at risk.
Recalling how she was tortured and
imprisoned in the 1970s for belonging to a
leftist guerrilla group, Rousseff urged
senators to “vote against impeachment,
vote for democracy… Do not accept a
coup.”
However, huge anti-Rousseff street
demonstrations over the last year have
reflected nationwide anger at her
management of a country suffering double-
digit unemployment and inflation.
The once mighty Workers’ Party,
meanwhile, has struggled to stage more
than small rallies.
Temer, who was in an uncomfortable
partnership with Rousseff before finally
splitting, will be president until the next
scheduled elections in late 2018.
The 75-year-old, known more as a
backroom wheeler-dealer than street
politician, took over in an interim role after
Rousseff’s initial suspension in May.
He immediately named a new government
with an agenda of shifting Brazil to the
right after more than a decade of leftist
rule that saw 29 million people lifted from
poverty, but became bogged down in
corruption and the economic slump.
Temer has earned plaudits from investors,
but it remains uncertain whether he will
have voters’ support to push through the
painful austerity reforms he promises.
Emotions spill over
Lawyers presenting closing arguments on
Tuesday could not hold back their
emotions as the clock wound down on a
crisis that has paralyzed Brazilian politics
for months, helping deepen national gloom
over recession and runaway corruption.
A lead lawyer for the case against
Rousseff, Senator Janaina Paschoal, wept
as she asked forgiveness for causing the
president “suffering,” but insisted it was
the right thing to do.
“The Brazilian people must be aware that
nothing illegal and illegitimate is being
done here,” she said.
Rousseff’s counsel, veteran lawyer Jose
Eduardo Cardozo, retorted that the charges
were trumped up to punish the president’s
support for a huge corruption investigation
that has snared many of Brazil’s elite.
“This is a farce,” he said in a speech
during which his voice alternated between
shouts and near whispers.
“We should ask her forgiveness if she is
convicted,” he added. “History will treat her
fairly. History will absolve Dilma Rousseff if
you convict her.” source: PUNCH
Comments
Post a Comment