DILMA ROUSSEFF: BRAZILIAN CONGRESS VOTES PRESIDENT

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Brazil (HRNW): Once the senate agrees to consider the motion, which is likely within weeks, Rousseff will have to step aside for 180 days and the Workers party government, which has ruled Brazil since 2002, will be at least temporarily replaced by a centre-right administration led by vice-president Michel Temer.

On a dark night, arguably the lowest point was when Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right deputy from Rio de Janeiro, dedicated his yes vote to Carlos Brilhante Ustra, the colonel who headed the Doi-Codi torture unit during the dictatorship era. Rousseff, a former guerrilla, was among those tortured. Bolsonaro’s move prompted left-wing deputy Jean Wyllys to spit towards him.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, his son and also a deputy, used his time at the microphone to honour the general responsible for the military coup in 1964.

Deputies were called one by one to the microphone by the instigator of the impeachment process, Cunha – an evangelical conservative who is himself accused of perjury and corruption – and one by one they condemned the president.

Yes, voted Paulo Maluf, who is on Interpol’s red list for conspiracy. Yes, voted Nilton Capixiba, who is accused of money laundering. “For the love of God, yes!” declared Silas Camara, who is under investigation for forging documents and misappropriating public funds.

And yes, voted the vast majority of the more than 150 deputies who are implicated in crimes but protected by their status as parliamentarians.

At times the session exposed the farcical side of Brazil’s democracy, such as the Women’s party that has only male deputies, or the Progressive Socialist party that is one of the most right-wing groups in congress.

Brazil’s presidential chief of staff Jaques Wagner said the government was confident the senate would dismiss the impeachment, insisting the vote was a setback for democracy and was “orchestrated” by Rousseff’s opponents who never accepted her re-election victory in 2014.

But Rousseff’s chances of survival look slim. Brazil has turned dramatically against the country’s first female president. Once one of the most popular leaders in the world, with approval ratings of 92%, Rousseff has since seen her support plunge as a result of economic recession, political turmoil and the Lava Jato investigation into corruption at Petrobras, which has implicated almost all of the major parties.

Several senior Workers party officials have been arrested in connection with the scandal and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is under investigation. As a former energy minister and head of her party, critics say Rousseff should have known what was going on, but she has not been charged.

Recent polls suggest only 10% of the public think the president is doing a good job and 60% support her removal.

But many are uneasy about the dubious grounds for impeachment. Rousseff is accused of window-dressing government accounts with a temporary transfer of money from state banks ahead of the last election. Supporters says this minor and common infraction is being used as a pretext for a “coup” to seize power by a political class that is notorious for far more serious crimes. About a third of the lower house deputies are either under investigation or charged with crimes.

On Sunday night, Brazilian television channels showed streets full of pro-impeachment protesters dancing in celebration. Many draped themselves in the national flag and at one point they burst into a chorus of the national anthem. With each declaration from congress, the crowds cheered and booed as if in a pantomime or a football match. One even released a confetti cannon, briefly filling the air above him in a glittering cloud of colour.

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