Olympic flame arrives in Brazil
JOURNEY: THREE-MONTH COUNTRYWIDE TRIP TO START
President greets flame before relay of 12 000 people carry torch to Games.
Brasilia
Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff was to greet the Olympic flame yesterday in what could be her last big public appearance as president if she is impeached. The arrival of the flame in Brasilia from an ancient Greek temple via Switzerland will start a three-month countdown to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Brazil’s big chance to shine on the global stage.
The flame would be met with indigenous rituals, dangled from a helicopter and carried on a canoe, on foot and on horseback to mark its arrival for the first Olympics in South America.
Rousseff was to take hold of the torch in her presidential Planalto Palace in the capital.
It would then be carried around the country by a relay of 12 000 people before reaching the legendary Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the start of the Games on August 5.
The president, 68, will, meanwhile, be counting down the days until next week.
On May 11 or 12, the Senate is expected to vote to open an impeachment trial against her over allegations that she illegally manipulated government accounts to cover up the depth of Brazil’s economic crisis.
Rousseff claims to be the victim of a coup.
If an impeachment trial is launched, she would be replaced by Vice-President Michel Temer, whom she has branded a “traitor”.
A definitive Senate vote on Rousseff ’s fate could take months more, but unless she were cleared, her nemesis Temer would stay in power until the next scheduled elections in 2018.
Rousseff has vowed to “fight to the end”. If suspended, she would stay in the presidential residence on half pay for up to six months.
From there she will attempt to persuade senators that the accounting tricks she is accused of do not amount to an impeachable offence. – AFP
Vice-President Temer is a traitor. I will fight to the end. I will stay on half pay
Dilma Rousseff Brazilian president