Rousseff enters final act of impeachment saga

BRAZIL’S first woman president, Dilma Rousseff, faced the final act of an impeachment battle yesterday likely to see the suspended leader of Latin America’s biggest economy sacked within days.

A Senate trial starting at 9am (1200 GMT)was considered almost sure to result in Rousseff, 68, being found guilty of cooking the budget books to mask the depth of economic problems during her 2014 re-election campaign.

If she is removed from office, her former vice president turned rival Michel Temer will be sworn in to serve until 2018, shifting Brazil to the right after 13 years of leftist rule under Rousseff’s Workers’ Party.

Rousseff, who was tortured and imprisoned by the 1970s dictatorship for membership in a Marxist urban guerrilla group, swore to fight to the end against what she calls a coup.

“We will fight to reinforce democracy in our country with the same force that I fought against the military dictatorship,” she told supporters late on Wednesday in Brasilia.

In a climax to the trial, the president, who was suspended from office in May, will address the Senate on Monday. A vote is expected within 48 hours, with a two thirds majority required to bring Rousseff down.

Despite her defiance, Rousseff cuts a lonely figure, abandoned by even former government ministers and with only minimal public support.

Every congressional vote at previous stages in the months-long impeachment saga, has seen the pro-impeachment side easily win.

Many senators can barely disguise their eagerness to finish Rousseff off – and inflict lasting damage on the once mighty Workers’ Party.

The charges against Rousseff narrowly focus on her use of unauthorised state loans to cover budget gaps. She argues that the practice has long been accepted by a succession of governments. Unofficially, Rousseff is taking the blame for Brazil’s vertiginous slide into economic decline, mixed with a giant corruption scandal and gridlock in Congress.