Rousseff accuses senators who suspended her of launching a coup

SUSPENDED Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff yesterday denounced a “coup” after senators suspended her to face an impeachment trial.

The embattled leader, who is accused of breaking budget accounting laws, was forced to step aside for 180 days after a marathon 20-hour session in the Brazilian senate.

Her vice-president, Michel Temer, assumed the presidency and quickly pivoted toward a more business-friendly government, naming a cabinet chosen to steer the country out of its worst recession in decades.

He chose respected former central bank chief Henrique Meirelles as finance minister and Senator Romero Jucá, who is under investigation at the Supreme Court, as minister for planning, in a cabinet overhaul that opponents immediately condemned as a throwback to an era when Brazilian politics was the exclusive domain of white males.

Geddel Vieira Lima, who is suspected of receiving bribes in the widespread kickback scandal at oil giant Petrobras, was named chief minister.

In his first public appearance as acting president, Mr Temer said: “It is urgent to pacify the nation and unify Brazil. It is urgent that we form a government of national salvation.” He addressed a rowdy turnout of supporters while police used pepper spray on protesters who tried to hold a lie-in on the ramp to the presidential palace.

The decision to open a trial was reached at 6.30am with an overwhelming 55-22 vote against Ms Rousseff. Brazil’s first female president called on her supporters to “remain mobilised” after being driven from power, as she braces for an impeachment trial.

“I never imagined that it would be necessary to once again fight against a coup in this country,” she said, referring to her past resisting the military dictatorship.

The former guerrilla, who was arrested and tortured, said: “The fight for democracy doesn’t have an end date. I will never give up fighting.” Flanked by sympathetic ministers, congress members and senators, Ms Rousseff showed a rare sign of emotion as her voice gave way to a slight tremble when she re- called her government record and history of resistance.

“I am proud to be the first woman elected president of Brazil. In the name of those votes and all the people in my country, I’m going to fight with all the legal tools available to see out my mandate,” she said.

She insisted that she had acted within the law and said she did nothing that previous presidents had not also done.