Debate on Rousseff divides Brazil
Lower house may vote to impeach president
BRASILIA, BRAZIL • The lower chamber of Brazil’s Congress began a debate Friday on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, an issue that underscores deep polarization in Latin America’s largest country and most powerful economy.
The vote is slated for Sunday on whether to send the measure to the Senate, where an impeachment trial would take place, prompting the president’s suspension from office.
The atmosphere in the lower Chamber of Deputies was electric, as Rousseff’s critics festooned themselves with yellow and green ribbons and brandished placards reading “Impeachment Now!”
Lawmakers backing impeachment allege Rousseff ’s administration violated fiscal rules, using sleight-of-hand accounting in a bid to shore up public support. However, many of those pushing for impeachment face accusations of corruption themselves, which government supporters are quick to brand as hypocrisy.
Rousseff’s defenders insist she did nothing illegal, and say similar accounting techniques were used by previous presidents.
Miguel Reale Junior, author of the impeachment petition, said Rousseff’s manoeuvring led to the ills plaguing the country, such as high inflation and periodic devaluations of the Brazilian real.
“Are you going to tell me that isn’t a crime?” Junior said, adding that the impeachment push was not “a coup,” as government supporters contend.
Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo said impeachment would constitute an act of “violence without precedent” against democracy and the Brazilian people.
Flanked by people holding signs showing the constitution being ripped apart, Cardozo insisted the impeachment process was an act of personal vengeance against Rousseff by house Speaker Eduardo Cunha.
Cunha, Cardozo alleged, was striking out at Rousseff for refusing to help him avoid an ethics probe into allegations he received millions in bribes from a corruption scheme in the Petrobras oil company.
“Violence has been committed against the democratic state,” Cardozo shouted, gesticulating wildly.
The political infighting has dragged on for months, hamstringing attempts to help lift the economy and hanging up other measures observers say are crucial to getting the country back on track.
The pro-impeachment camp needs two-thirds of the 513 votes in the lower house, or 342 votes, to send the proceedings to the Senate for a possible trial. If the Senate agrees to take it up, Rousseff would be forced to step down until the measure is voted on. The Senate would have six months for a trial.