Brazil Senate Votes To Remove President From Office — Here's What's Going On
After a nine-month impeachment process, which included multiple votes and a lengthy trial, Brazil's Senate voted today to remove President Dilma Rouseff from office and convict her on charges of manipulating the federal budget. Here's what to read.
Update 8/1: In its final vote, the senate voted 61 to 20 to convict Rousseff:
Ms. Rousseff will not go to jail after her conviction, but she expressed defiance throughout her trial, insisting that Brazil's economic crisis was largely the result of shifts in the global economy that cut commodities prices.
Update 5/12: On Wednesday night, Brazil's senate voted to impeach and suspend President Dilma Rousseff:
Senators voted to suspend her by 55 votes to 22 after an all-night session that lasted more than 20 hours.
Vice-President Michel Temer will now assume the presidency while Ms Rousseff's trial takes place.
The trial may last up to 180 days, which would mean Ms Rousseff would be suspended during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which start on 5 August.
[BBC]
Update 5/11: After a brief setback in the lower house, Brazil's senate will vote today on a motion to start the impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff:
If her opponents garner a simple majority of the 81 senators, Rousseff will be suspended for up to six months during the trial and the vice-president, Michel Temer, will take power. With well over half of senators telling newspapers they will vote to try Rousseff, Brazil's first female leader is expected to leave the Planalto presidential palace on Thursday, following 13 years of leftist Workers' party rule in Latin America's largest country.
Previously 5/9: After Brazil's lower house voted overwhelmingly to impeach Dilma Rousseff — Brazil's first female president — last month, the issue was set to go to trial after a senate vote. But on Monday, the interim speaker of the house announced that the vote would be annulled over procedural errors, throwing Brazil's government into further chaos. Here's what you need to know.
YOU CAN'T SIT HERE ANYMORE
Over Two-Thirds Of The House Voted Last Month For Impeachment
Last month, the lower house of Brazil's Congress fought ferociously, and eventually overwhelmingly called for Rousseff's impeachment.
[A]fter more than six hours of voting and fiery speeches, the results didn't fall in President Dilma Rousseff's favor. When the final tally was announced, 367 lawmakers had voted to impeach, comfortably more than the two-thirds — 342 — needed to pass the motion. Only 137 voted against the proposal, while a handful abstained.
[CNN]
SHIT WAS GETTING REAL
And A Senate Committee Had Recommended A Full Impeachment Trial
In Brazil, a Senate committee has recommended an impeachment trial for President Dilma Rousseff over allegations she tampered with public accounts to hide a budget deficit. Brazil is engulfed in a corruption scandal, but Rousseff herself has not been accused of corruption.
YOU CAN GUESS HOW THEY'LL VOTE
But Now The House Is Being Asked To Vote Again
Brazil's new lower house speaker has annulled last month's impeachment vote against Dilma Rousseff in a twist that would stretch the credibility of a House of Cards plot. The surprise move, which comes just days before the upper house was due to consider the motion, throws the legislature into chaos and could provide a lifeline to the embattled president.
Could Vote As Early As Wednesday
The Senate Intends To Continue The Impeachment Process, Regardless Of The Lower House
Brazil's Senate decided on Monday to move ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, just hours after the head of the lower house called for the process to be suspended. Senate chief Renan Calheiros told the chamber that he wouldn't recognize lower house interim President Waldir Maranhao's decision earlier in the day to annul the April 17 impeachment vote in the lower house.
A VEEP SCENARIO
If The Senate Eventually Finds Her Guilty, The VP Would Take Over Until The Next Election
The house speaker's decision sets things back, but if the house votes again to move the impeachment process to the senate and the senate accepts, Rousseff will step down while an investigation takes place.
Within 180 days a full plenary of the senate, presided over by the chief justice, will sit in judgment on Rousseff. If two-thirds approve, which is uncertain, she will be ejected from office and Temer will be president until the next election in 2018.
A SHOWER, NOT REALLY A GROWER
Rousseff Is Accused Of Manipulating The Budget To Show Growth During Her Reelection Bid
Rousseff does not face corruption charges, but the lawmakers behind the effort to remove her say her government used accounting measures in 2014 to mask a growing budget deficit. Critics allege Rousseff used upfront payments on some federal government's economic and social projects that were not immediately reimbursed—a practice known as "backpedaling" — to portray economic growth during Rousseff's reelection bid. Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that such practices are widely used. Last October, a federal audit court ruled Rousseff violated finance laws, paving the way for members of the lower house to establish a special committee and begin impeachment proceedings.
NO MORE DRAMA
Many Support Her Impeachment, However, Because Of Her Party's Ties To The Petrobras Scandal
The Petrobras Scandal occurred when The Worker's Party (of which Rousseff is a member) appointed their candidates to executive positions of Brazil's state oil company. The appointed members diverted billions of dollars to their party, and ended up lining theirs and their collaborators' pockets.
[W]hile the impeachment officially cites allegations that she manipulated the federal budget to disguise a growing deficit, it is a sprawling scandal at Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, that has taken a greater toll on her government and helped generate support for her removal…President Rousseff has not been accused of any crime. But before assuming the Brazilian presidency in 2011, she was chairman of Petrobras between 2003 and 2010, when much of the corruption allegedly took place. The opposition alleges her presidential election campaigns of 2010 and 2014 were funded by corruption, charges the PT denies.
WHO'S REALLY THE BAD GUY?
Critics Of The Investigation Say That It Is Corrupt As The Scandal Itself
Those critical of the crusade against the Workers Party and Rousseff say, however, that the investigations are politically motivated and corrupt themselves — ignoring due process.
[W]hile there is corruption in the [Workers Party], the party is hardly unique in that respect; its opposition, until very recently spared by investigators, is no better. Evidence to date suggests that the Petrobras scheme was likely initiated under Cardoso [the opposition President from 1995 to 2003], though his party has not come under scrutiny. Indeed, there is strong reason to believe that the judge and his supporters have political motives — that their goal is less to ensure good governance and the evenhanded delivery of justice than to criminalize the [Workers Party] and destroy its reputation.
