Brasilia: On Sunday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff suffered a
crushing defeat as congress voted to impeach her.
Fireworks lit up the night sky in Brazil's megacities of Sao Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro after the opposition comfortably surpassed the two-thirds
majority needed to send Rousseff for trial in the Senate on charges of manipulating
budget accounts. The floor of the lower house was a sea of Brazilian flags and
pumping fists as dozens of lawmakers carried in their arms the deputy who cast
the decisive 342nd vote, after three days of a marathon debate. The final tally
was 367 votes cast in favor of impeachment, versus 137 against, and seven
abstentions. Two lawmakers did not show up to vote.
The impeachment battle, waged
during Brazil's worst recession since the 1930s, has divided the country of 200
million people more deeply than at any time since the end of its military
dictatorship in 1985. It has also sparked a bitter battle between the
68-year-old Rousseff and Vice-President Michel Temer, 75, that could
destabilize any future government and plunge Brazil into months of uncertainty.
Despite anger at rising
unemployment, Rousseff's Workers Party can still rely on support among millions
of working-class Brazilians, who credit its welfare programs with pulling their
families out of poverty during the past decade.
While she has not been accused of corruption, Rousseff's government has
been tainted by a vast graft scandal at state oil company Petrobras and by the
economic recession.
No comments:
Post a Comment