Rousseff ousted by Senate, Lebanese-Brazilian Temer sworn in

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Brazil’s Senate ousted President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday, ending an impeachment process that polarized Latin America’s biggest country amid a massive corruption scandal and brutal economic crisis.

Senators voted 61-20 to convict the country’s first female president for illegally using money from state banks to bankroll public spending, marking the end of 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule.

Rousseff’s opponents hailed her removal as paving the way for a change of fortunes for Brazil. Her conservative successor, Michel Temer, the former vice president who has run Brazil since her suspension in May, inherits a bitterly divided nation with voters in no mood for the austerity measures needed to heal public finances.

In his first televised address to the nation after being sworn in as president through 2018, Temer called on Brazilians to unite behind him in working to rescue the economy from a fiscal crisis and over 11 percent unemployment.

“This moment is one of hope and recovery of confidence in Brazil. Uncertainty has ended,” Temer said in the speech broadcast after his departure for a G20 summit in China.

Until just a few years ago, Brazil was booming economically and its status was rising on the global stage.

The country then slid into its deepest recession in decades, and a graft scandal at state oil company Petrobras tarnished Rousseff’s coalition. Millions took to the streets this year to demand her removal, less than two years after she was re-elected.

A string of corruption scandals, led by the Petrobras scheme, has engulfed vast swaths of Brazil’s political class and business elites over the past 2-1/2 years.

Temer will likely face tough opposition from the Workers Party both on the streets and in Congress to his agenda of privatizations, reforms to Brazil’s generous pension and welfare laws and a public spending ceiling he hopes lawmakers will pass this year.

For the third straight day, pro-Rousseff demonstrators in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, clashed with riot police, who used tear gas to clear the streets.

Defiant to the end, Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured and jailed under military dictatorship in 1970, vowed to fight on in defense of Brazil’s workers.

Standing outside the presidential residence flanked by supporters, she insisted on her innocence and said her removal was a “parliamentary coup” backed by the economic elite that would roll back social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty over the last decade.

“They think they have beaten us but they are mistaken,” Rousseff said, adding that she would appeal the decision using every legal means. “At this time, I will not say goodbye to you. I am certain I can say ‘See you soon’.”

The end of the Workers Party’s long grip on power sparked angry reactions from leftist governments across the region.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador withdrew their ambassadors, and Brazil responded by recalling its envoys for consultations. Cuba’s Communist government branded Rousseff’s ouster part of an “imperialist” offensive against progressive governments in Latin America.

The U.S. State Department voiced confidence that strong bilateral relations with Brazil would continue, adding the country’s democratic institutions had acted within the constitutional framework.

In an unexpected move, Brazil’s Senate voted 42-36 to allow Rousseff to retain the right to hold public office – a break with Brazilian law that specifies a dismissed president should be barred from holding any government job for eight years.

The move appeared to demonstrate unease among some senators, notably within Temer’s own fractious Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), over whether a budgetary sleight of hand that is common in Brazil was truly an impeachable offense.

Visibly annoyed in televised remarks at his first cabinet meeting, Temer said he would not tolerate divisions in his coalition as he quickly tried to quash the first sign of splits that could grow as allies press him to deliver on austerity.

Aecio Neves, leader of the center-right PSDB party that backs Temer, said the divisions had caused acute concern among his allies, but he denied there was any prospect of a split.

“Brazil has given itself a new chance, to look to the future and construct an agenda for reform in line with the economic crisis,” said Neves, who narrowly lost the 2014 election to Rousseff.

HONKING HORNS, FIREWORKS

Motorists honked car horns in the Brazilian capital to mark the removal of a president whose popularity had dwindled to single figures since winning re-election in 2014. In Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, fireworks exploded in celebration after the vote.

Temer has vowed to boost an economy that has shrunk for six consecutive quarters and implement austerity measures to plug a record budget deficit, which cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating last year.

An upturn in corporate investment in the second quarter provided a glimmer of economic hope for Temer and economists expect a return to growth before the end of the year.

Brazil’s stocks and real currency slightly accelerated gains following the Senate’s decision but the reaction was muted as most traders were already counting on the result. Market analysts said investors would now be looking to Temer to quickly deliver on his promises of reform, notably a constitutional change to limit spending increases in coming years.

“What changes now, with Temer definitively confirmed, is that the pressure will increase on him to deliver,” said Newton Rose, chief economist at Sulamerica Investimentos. “The honeymoon is over, and the market wants to know now how capable he is to govern and put the government accounts in order.”

Temer’s government risks entanglement in the ongoing investigation into kickbacks at Petrobras, which ensnared dozens of politicians in Rousseff’s coalition. Three of Temer’s ministers have already had to step down due to links to the scandal, which could hobble efforts to restore confidence.

Rousseff became the first Brazilian leader dismissed from office since 1992, when Fernando Collor de Mello resigned before a final vote in his impeachment trial for corruption.

 

REUTERS

 

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44 responses to “Rousseff ousted by Senate, Lebanese-Brazilian Temer sworn in”

  1. While 3/4 of the Brazilian Senate was under criminal investigation, the US-led could against Rousseff, Brazil and most importantly the BRICS happened.

    Worth noting that Temer was a US-informant …

    Brazil’s new interim president, Michel Temer, was an embassy informant for US intelligence, WikiLeaks has revealed.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/brazils-acting-president-michel-temer-used-to-be-us-intelligence-informant-wikileaks/5525589

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Well, nothing new about Spies … generally even … proud heritage at work?
      However, Rousseff may as well figure she’s been hornswaggled (on a few fronts), had a good life, check the offshore account great places to live, and go quietly into the night. Many have preceeded her in the ‘Upper-Society Ranks’, and she’ll have folks to talk to. A Lot less stress, for sure.

      1. No doubt, they’re all corrupt at some level but Rousseff was also elected by the people. On the all, this was an attack on the BRICS.

        1. I presume that you have the same qualifications as Michel Temer – a Bachelor of Laws degree, when you claim that the coup was unconstitutional.

          1. How is Temer’s law degree of any relevance? He’s a sold out US informant (as attested by a Wikileaks) used as a puppet. Besides, 3/4 of the Brazilian Senate was under criminal investigation. But that is not a problem for AshkeNazi thugs like you.

            In regards to whether it was constitutional or not …

            Jurors for the tribunal found that pursuant to the Brazilian constitution, impeachable offenses must be serious crimes “committed intentionally against legal interests directly linked to the structure of the Constitution and, consequently, the Brazilian state” – the Constitution says nothing of minor non-criminal incidents including budgetary maneuvers to cover program funding shortfalls. Nor was it found that Dilma Rousseff’s motives for the financial maneuver were for personal enrichment or conducted in order to conceal any act of corruption. The jury found consistent with a report by the Public Prosecutor’s office that Rousseff is not guilty of any crime at all.

            Read more: http://sputniknews.com/latam/20160829/1044723966/dilma-rousseff-impeachment-coup-temer.html

          2. The fact that the Piece of Crap(tm) hates Temer is a sure indication that the latter is not half that bad.

          3. “(tm)” – HAHAHA!!! Oh le con. Un vrai de vrai.

            It’s Shabbat. Aren’t you supposed to take a break?

          4. Don’t laugh too hard, retard. You might accidentally shit your pants.

            As to your dumb question, here’s the authoritative Talmud-based answer: “Thou shalt piss and take dumps on a Shabbat. Especially if an Arab Nazi is your toilet” (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Matzi’a, Ketubot 10:252).

          5. I thought you didn’t read the Talmud?

          6. Repeating the same moronic questions over and over and over again. Are you trying to bore me to death, pal? Or just being your usual retarded self? 🙂

          7. So do you or do you not read the Talmud?

          8. Playing dumb suits you a tee. BTW, I’m getting the impression from your Putin photo that your hitting on me. Just to let you know, I don’t roll that way.

          9. http://i66.tinypic.com/2nizeyq.jpg

            The impression you get what your subconscious has been telling you for decades: Don’t fight it, resistance is futile. Come out of the closet and embrace your inner self.

          10. You are wasting your time. Do you now have a PhD in Psychiatry or Tarot cards?

          11. So are you.
            No, only in chemical engineering. Didn’t know there was a doctorate in tarot cards.

          12. 5thDrawer Avatar

            LOLOLOLOL …. he;s a cutie when he wants to be .. 😉

          13. HAHAHA! 🙂

          14. “Sputniknews” created by an Executive order of the President of Russia – the one and only Vladimir Vladimirovitj Putin…
            Isn’t RT or press TV enough?

            Who cares if omega have a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering.

            His comments making sense now, he probably made some mistake when mixing chemicals….

          15. Meth cooks claim to be chemical engineers so I’m not impressed.

          16. Unless you and/or your family members invested 10+ years of your/their lives studying/researching, you guys can’t call yourselves that.

          17. There are so many folks who have invested many years of their lives in so many ways. Your choice and their choice. Yet there are no guarantees. Some folks think a PhD is just Piled higher and Deeper. You are not any more special than the puppeteer that invented the first artificial heart.

          18. I never wrote anything that may have suggested, direct or indirectly, that a doctorate degree is “piled higher and deeper” than anything else (I am not one of those folks) and/or that I am more special than anybody else (I do what I do because I love it, not to impress anyone). Matter of fact: in my close to 12K comments, I never mentioned once what I did/do in life until you asked me recently. I brought it up again today to that wuss Oh Yeah/Matrix after he asked me if I had a law degree.
            I honestly don’t know what the point of your drivel is but after reading you calling the inventor of the first artificial heart a “puppeteer”, I am sensing you suffer from an unhealthy inferiority complex when you shouldn’t. If you can’t have the slightest respect for the men and women of science who have contributed to our world, then I am not sure what to tell you.

          19. I said it was piled higher and deeper. Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the bantering that goes on in the education field. Just for a little education the BS is bullshit, the MS is moreshit. Such terms are applied when the various team members are assisting candidates in their administration or funding.

            Paul Winchell is the man I was referring too.

            Respect works both ways.

          20. It’s the first time I hear that a Ph.D is higher and deeper shit than a BS and MS. You either know it all or you know nothing at all.

            The bachelor’s -> masters -> doctorate path is the established progression in the educational system, worldwide. Yes, in the end, they are titles written on a piece of paper but so is a medal just a piece of metal for an Olympian. Saying that they are just administration and monetary assistance is abysmal ignorance. You are maybe referring to the educational system in the USA where it’s a giant money-making enterprise? Here, in Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia, it’s not. I also know it’s not the case in Canada.

            I thought you were referring to the actual inventor of the artificial heart; not a comedian.

            Respect does work both ways. I sense all this is nothing but a personal issue to you; not factual.

          21. There you go: the coward/wuss cannot continue the conversation with me and seeks the supports of others.

            Sputnik reported the International Court statement; it did not make it up.

            You asked me if I had a Law degree, I told you what I have. I asked you: what about you but you did not answer yet. If I would guess … you were bread fest until the age of 20, home schooled with Pharisaism, the Talmud and how to become a hasbarist. How’s ESL going?

          22. 5thDrawer Avatar

            (pssstt .. I think it’s ok to say ‘breast fed’ here ….)

          23. Whoops (!); indeed it is. 🙂 Edited.

          24. 5thDrawer Avatar

            ?? ;-)))

          25. I had written “bread fed” … when I meant to write: breast fed. Edited it after your comment “it’s okay to say…”.

          26. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Short guys seem always like that ,,,

          27. So you don’t have any Bachelor of Laws degree – Brazilian, just Wikileaks…
            Case closed.

          28. I have a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering, not “any Bachelor of Laws degree – Brazilian”. What’s “Brazilian” doing there anyway? What about you? And no wuss, the case is not closed.

            One does not need a Law degree to realize that …

            1. Temer is a filthy rat

            WikiLeaks: Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer Is US Diplomatic Informant

            http://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-brazils-acting-president-michel-temer-us-diplomatic-informant/216425/

            2. That the coup against Rousseff is illegitimate. An International Court says it.

            International Court: Impeachment of Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff an Illegitimate Coup

            http://sputniknews.com/latam/20160829/1044723966/dilma-rousseff-impeachment-coup-temer.html

          29. Blablablabla….

          30. Now the case is closed.

        2. 5thDrawer Avatar

          “…. the market wants to know now how capable he is to govern and put the government accounts in order.”
          And especially – perhaps – how fast he can eliminate some humanitarian reforms that were done for ‘the people’ ??
          Pendulums Swinging wildly from one side of the clock to the other is often a reason the clock is broken. Get some viable and realistic new rules in place .. NOT just stuff for the ‘market-boys’.

          1. Temer succeed to oust Rousseff, but he have nothing to deliver.

            The Brazilian ‘government’ is paralyzed, and the tension on the streets build-up.

            What a future for Brazil…

          2. Decided to post under Oh Yeah for a change Matrix?

            It doesn’t matter whether Temer has something to deliver or not. The objective of the USA was to oust Rousseff, take over the natural resources and weaken the BRICS.

          3. I tolerated too long your assumption that I and ‘Oh Yeah’ are one and the same signature. I take this opportunity to point out that it’s about time you stop your fantasies based on the absurd reason of date, ‘Joined July 9, 2016,’ Joined June 9, 2016…..

            You are free to turn to her/him to get clarity about your imagination, and if you resume again with the “.. to post to Oh Yeah for a change Matrix” I will completely ignore your comments.

          4. HAHAHA!!!

            See, when you apply yourself, your English gets better.

            Keep it up Oh Yeah!

          5. Hind Abyad Avatar

            Why don’t you ignore now?

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar

    Venezuela was giggling … for a while.

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