Brazil Senate debates fate of Rousseff
BRASILIA, Brazil—Senators deciding whether to oust President Dilma Rousseff headed into a long night of debate Tuesday, with so many wanting to speak that the judge presiding over the impeachment trial put off the final vote until Wednesday.
Many of the 81 senators signed up to speak, prompting Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski to announce that the vote could not happen Tuesday as originally planned. He said the trial would adjourn after all senators finished speaking, then resume Wednesday morning.
Earlier Tuesday, the prosecution and defense made their final arguments.
Janaina Paschoal, the lead lawyer presenting the case against Brazil’s first female president, said the suspended leader had broken fiscal responsibility laws in managing the federal budget.
“We are not dealing with a little accounting problem; we are dealing with fraud,” she said.
“It wasn’t just that a president lied,” she added. “The fraud was spoken and the fraud was documented.”
Wrapping up her presentation minutes later, Paschoal came to tears when she said she hoped Rousseff would be forgiving for “having caused her to suffer.”
Rousseff’s attorney, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, also got emotional after presenting his defense and called Paschoal’s teary comments “insulting.”
The presentations came in the final phase of a political fight that has consumed Latin America’s largest nation since an impeachment measure was introduced in the lower Chamber of Deputies late last year.
For Rousseff to be removed, at least 54 of the 81 senators must vote in favor. Local media have reported that at least 52 senators have said they will vote for ouster, while roughly 18 are opposed and 11 have not said. In May, the same body voted 55-22 to impeach and suspend her.
Allies of Rousseff have signaled that if she is removed from office, they will take the case to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s highest court. Several motions seeking injunctions were filed to the court throughout the impeachment process but failed.
Opposition senators accuse Rousseff of using illegal means to hide holes in the federal budget, saying that exacerbated a recession, high inflation and layoffs.
Rousseff, a former guerrilla fighter who was tortured and imprisoned during the country’s dictatorship, calls that nonsense. She says she broke no laws and notes that previous presidents used similar accounting measures.
On Monday, she mounted that defense in the Senate, arguing that she was forced to make tough choices on the budget in the face of declining revenues and a refusal by opponents in Congress to work with her.