Brazillian Prez Rousseff impeached and suspended from office
12 May 2016, 9:33 am
The Senate had been widely expected to vote for Rousseff to be tried in impeachment proceedings. The final tally is a resounding defeat for Rousseff, easily surpassing the simple majority (41 votes) required.
In fact, two-thirds of the body voted for Rousseff to be tried. During trial proceedings, another two-thirds vote by the Senate would convict Rousseff and permanently remove her as the country's president.
The Senate's debate Wednesday night was a marathon — lasting more than 20 hours.
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But, Lulu points out, many of Dilma's critics and opponents are themselves caught up in scandal or suspicion.
"Almost 60 percent of the Senate is under some form of criminal investigation," she notes. "There were surreal moments when former President, now Senator, Fernando Collor took to the podium to discuss his own impeachment process in 1992. Some of the senators speaking out most vociferously against Rousseff are themselves under indictment — like Ivo Cassol from Rondonia, who has been found guilty by the Supreme Court but is still in office while he appeals his jail sentence on technicalities."
The charges against Rousseff aren't eye-popping or jaw-dropping; she's accused on fairly technical grounds of concealing the extent of the country's budgetary shortfall.
But there's more at play than the stated charges, Lulu says: Rousseff is deeply unpopular, with only 10 percent approval ratings, and Brazil's economy is suffering.
Rousseff's supporters, meanwhile, call the impeachment proceedings a "coup."
Vice President Michel Temer will serve as acting president as Rousseff is tried, and will continue if Rousseff is permanently removed from office. The center-right politician's assumption of the office ends 13 years of the left's hold on the presidency.
As we reported yesterday, Temer is among the politicians accused of profiting from a massive corruption scandal involving the state oil company Petrobras. The scandal has also touched Rousseff, but was not officially included in her impeachment charges.
The Senate now has 180 days to try Rousseff. If she is convicted, she would be formally impeached (in Brazil, the term is used for a conviction, not simply a suspension from office).
Lulu reports some opposition lawmakers are calling for Rousseff to resign, to avoid a lengthy trial — but Rousseff has vowed to fight it out.
Pretty screwed up situation in Brazil, the corruption seems so pervasive even the VP they're replacing the current president with is under investigation too. It may be more of a coup than anything, Glenn Greenwald hasn't spoken to fondly of the proceedings. Rousseff will be removed and will likely face trial during the Olympic Games in August. The whole Rio Olympics seems like a huge huge mess.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... rom-office
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazi ... SKCN0Y206H
FWIW, not mentioned in the first article but Dilma Rousseff I believe is considered the far left ala Hugo Chavez in Brazil representing the Worker's Party and was a Marxist guerilla in her youth under the military dictatorship. The rest of the political spectrum there seems to be uniting against her, would be interesting to hear from anybody that's from Brazil or has any more insight.
12 May 2016, 11:03 am
All parties in Brazil are corrupt to the bone.
Brazilian corruption is essentially institutionalized corruption by tradition.
The current president is merely an easy target and scapegoat as the population is fired up over Brazil spending billions on the World Cup and now way over budget on the Olympics which start in August.
She had very little to do with this as it was started under the past two presidents.
The average citizen hasn't seen the infrastructure improvements that were promised.
Also Brazil's economy is in it's steepest recession since the 1990s and the Real is dropping like a brick on the market.
People are getting laid off and have seen their wages stagnate and crime increase.
She just isn't a charismatic as Lula her predecessor.
To make this even odder, the Speaker of the House was removed from his post by Brazil's Supreme Court for corruption charges as well.
The House nullified their impeachment vote the other day claiming procedural error and the Senate said they can't.
So technically both chambers are at odds.
This vote will go to the Supreme Court to determine it's legality.
Also the main reason why the other parties are pushing this impeachment, is in hopes this will quell public anger against corruption by sacrificing the president and they can by time to cover up their far worse corruption.
The corruption probe has shown the parties in Brazil to be far more corrupt than the Workers party and the Congress is more corrupt than the President.
The Workers party is a leftist party, but not as leftist as the West makes it out to be.
They pulled millions out of poverty with social programs and created the longest economic boom in almost a hundred years in Brazil.
They succeeded the right leaning parties for power in the early 2000s as Brazil economy stagnated while the Rich were given tons of tax breaks and money.
If it wasn't for the steep recession and overspending on RIO, I doubt the public would be calling for the president's head.
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Something.... Weird... Something...
12 May 2016, 11:10 am
It's sort of similar to what happened in Honduras a few years ago I think which has been called a coup, the Supreme Court there removed the president for violating their constitution by trying to hold a non-binding referendum so he could run for president again after being term limited. In Brazil there is this massive corruption scandal, like the entire Brazilian political spectrum is accused of being in on it including this Michel Temer that is poised to take over the presidency. It seems like they are ousting the current leftist president and installing someone pro-market, Rousseff isn't accused of corruption herself but it is all around her including her mentor former President Lula da Silva who she served as energy minister under and this is where a lot of the corruption took place. She tried to name Lula to be her Chief of Staff which would of given him immunity from prosecution but was rejected by the Supreme Court and was one of mains sparks that set off this whole impeachment process.
