‘NOTHING TO HIDE,’ SAYS BRAZIL’S ROUSSEFF
Brazil’s president delivers defiant televised speech
BRASILIA• A defiant Dilma Rousseff delivered what may be her last speech as president of Brazil on Monday, appealing to senators not to vote for her ouster in a controversial impeachment trial that was postponed until the Rio Olympics concluded.
During an emotional address, Rousseff referred to the torture she suffered as a left-wing guerrilla who was imprisoned by Brazil’s military dictatorship. She said the attempt to impeach her amounted to a coup that would only worsen Brazil’s political and economic crisis.
“The accusations directed against me are unjust and uncalled for,” Rousseff said. “To condemn without sufficient proof is to condemn an innocent.”
If 54 of a total of 81 senators vote to impeach her, as is widely expected, Rousseff will be definitively ousted and her former vice-president, Michel Temer, confirmed as president.
Rousseff is accused of breaking budget laws and has been suspended since May, when the Senate confirmed a congressional decision to temporarily remove her from office pending the outcome of her trial and Temer took over as interim president. She denies the charges.
Broadcast live on Brazilian television, Rousseff’s speech to senators was a highly anticipated event.
“I come to look right in the eyes of your excellencies and say I have nothing to hide,” she said. “I did not commit the crimes you accuse me of.”
“What is in play is the selfesteem of Brazilians,” Rousseff said. At that point, she almost broke down in tears, drank some water, was applauded, and continued. “What is in play is the country’s future.”
Brazil’s worst recession in decades was a key factor in Rousseff’s loss of popularity after she narrowly won re-election in 2014. Some observers say she is paying the political price for mismanaging Brazil’s economy, which was booming when she first came to office in 2011.
“It was the economy, darling,” journalist Valdo Cruz wrote in an opinion column in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper on Monday.
Rousseff’s economic difficulties were exacerbated by street demonstrations protesting a huge corruption scandal at the state-run oil company Petrobras and calling for her impeachment. She has not been personally accused of benefiting from the scheme. But the multibillion-dollar scandal has engulfed many in her Workers’ Party and among its allies.