Brazil Senate Votes To Impeach First Woman President Dilma Rousseff
BRASILIA, BRAZIL (AP) -- Brazil's Senate has voted 55-22 to impeach the South American giant's first woman president.
President Dilma Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks to hide large budget deficits.
Rousseff will be suspended and replaced for up to six months by Vice President Michel Temer pending a trial in the Senate. The trial will determine whether Rousseff can serve out her second term, or whether her ally-turned-enemy, Temer, will remain in the top job through the December 2018 end of the term.
The result represents a victory for the pro-impeachment camp. It was significantly higher than the simple majority of 41 votes needed to suspend her. It sends a signal that Rousseff faces an uphill battle to return to power.
Thursday's vote capped a marathon session in the Senate that lasted more than 20 hours.
Senate President Renan Calheiros says that Rousseff will remain in the presidential residence despite being impeached and suspended by the Senate. Now that lawmakers have voted to impeach Rousseff, the chamber has up to 180 days to conduct a trial and then vote whether to remove her permanently.
Calheiros says that in the meantime Rousseff will have security guards, health care, and the right to air and ground travel, as well as staff for her personal office. He also says she'll receive a salary, though he didn't specify what it would be.
Rousseff's entire Cabinet was dismissed several hours after the vote to have the president suspended.
The G1 internet portal of the Globo television network says notice of the dismissal of the 27 ministers has appeared in Thursday's edition of the government gazette.
Those sacked include former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff's predecessor and mentor, whom she named as her chief of staff in March.
The dismissals appear to open the way for Rousseff's Vice President Michel Temer to swear in his own Cabinet as early as Thursday.
Temer has suggested he'll slash the number of Cabinet posts to 22.
Rousseff remains defiant in the face of the impeachment, saying "Never will I stop fighting." and calling the process "fraudulent" and "a coup."
"It's the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being — to be condemned for a crime you didn't commit," Rousseff said at a news conference Thursday morning.
In her words, "I may have committed errors but I never committed crimes."
(Copyright 2016 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
