Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff ousted in impeachment vote

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SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazilian-president-dilma-rousseff-faces-final-impeachment-vote/2016/08/30/c85173d4-6ee7-11e6-993f-73c693a89820_story.html

by: Marina Lopes and Dom Phillips


BRASILIA — Brazil’s Senate ousted Dilma Rousseff as president Wednesday, voting overwhelmingly to impeach the leftist leader in the culmination of a protracted process that has divided the country.

The vote to impeach Rousseff was 61 to 20. Two-thirds of senators — 54 out of 81 — were needed for impeachment to pass.

Senators broke into cheering and applause after the electronic voting was announced and sang the national anthem, concluding a process that was given the go-ahead in December.



But a second vote to strip Rousseff of her political rights for eight years fell well short of the required two-thirds supermajority, as 42 senators voted in favor of the penalty, with 36 opposed and three abstentions. However, a “clean slate” law could preclude her from running for office, though not from taking up a government position.

“Coup-mongers! History won’t forgive you!” Rousseff’s supporters in the Senate chanted after the second vote.

The long-awaited Senate proceedings went ahead Wednesday, senators and Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who was presiding, debated points of order.

Emotions ran high as senators for and against Rousseff’s removal made emotional speeches.

“Scoundrels!” roared Lindbergh Farias, from her left-wing Workers’ Party. Conservative Sen. Ronaldo Caiado retorted that the Workers’ Party was the real scandal for bringing Brazil to a “critical political and social moment.”

Rousseff was suspended in May after the Senate confirmed a lower-house vote to send her to trial on charges that she broke budget laws. Her former vice president, Michel Temer, took over as interim president.




Brazilian senators celebrate after voting in Brasilia to permanently remove President Dilma Rousseff from office. The opposition needed 54 of the 81 senators to vote in favor for her to be removed. They got many more, winning in a landslide of sorts, 61-20.

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