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Brazil top court rejects president’s bid to stop impeachment Brazil’s lower House begins presidential impeachment debate
(about 9 hours later)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s Supreme Court voted early Friday to reject a motion seeking to block an impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress against President Dilma Rousseff, sharply limiting the embattled leader’s options to avoid a showdown with legislators who want to oust her. BRASILIA, Brazil — The lower chamber of Brazil’s Congress on Friday began a debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, a question that underscores deep polarization in Latin America’s largest country and most powerful economy.
Rousseff has lost support of key allies this week and is now even closer to a major defeat that would weaken an already struggling administration dealing with problems on many fronts: the worst recession in decades, a sprawling scandal at state oil company Petrobras and an outbreak of the Zika virus, which can cause devastating birth defects. The crucial vote is slated for Sunday on whether to send the measure to the Senate, where an impeachment trial would take place, prompting the president’s suspension from office.
Justices voted 8-2 to deny Rousseff’s appeal, saying it wasn’t their role to get involved at this stage of the process, which the top legal official in Rousseff’s government called “contaminated.” The majority of judges argued the lower house’s role in impeachment proceedings is to consider whether to accept accusations against Rousseff and if it does so, the Senate will have a trial to fully examine them. The atmosphere in the lower Chamber of Deputies was electric at the start of the session, as Rousseff’s critics festooned themselves with yellow and green ribbons and brandished placards reading “Impeachment Now!”
The only good news for the Rousseff in the special session that ran past seven hours was a statement by Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski suggesting that in the future the court could again look at the impeachment proceedings. Lawmakers backing impeachment allege Rousseff’s administration violated fiscal rules, using sleight of hand accounting in a bid to shore up public support. However, many of those pushing for impeachment face grave accusations of corruption themselves.
“Impeachment is a political action, yes. But who said that political actions can’t be debated by the Judiciary?” said Lewandowski, one of the two justices who voted to back the president’s motion. Rousseff’s defenders insist she did nothing illegal, and say similar accounting techniques were used by previous presidents.
Justices began their session discussing whether the procedures set for Sunday’s impeachment vote by the Chamber of Deputies were valid. Miguel Reale Junior, author of the impeachment petition, said Rousseff’s maneuvering directly led to the ills plaguing the country today, such as high inflation and periodic devaluations of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar.
Initially, lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha, a strident foe of the president, organized the vote to begin with legislators from the industrial and rich south, where the opposition to Rousseff is strongest. “Are you going to tell me that isn’t a crime?” Junior told the body, adding that the impeachment push was not “a coup,” as government supporters contend.
But while the justices were meeting, Cunha’s lawyer presented a different plan that would alternate between the south and the north, where Rousseff has more support. The court decided to keep Cunha’s revised plan. Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo argued that lawmakers should only consider the actual accusations against Rousseff.
The top court had not been expected to rule on Thursday, but then Lewandowski said that “exceptional situations require exceptional measures.” He warned that impeachment would constitute an act of “violence without precedent” against democracy and the Brazilian people.
The late meeting of 10 justices was the latest development amid weeks of legal wrangling over a process in Congress that has exposed deep divisions in Latin America’s largest country. Flanked by people holding signs showing the constitution being ripped apart, Cardozo insisted the whole impeachment process was an act of personal vengeance against Rousseff by the house Speaker Eduardo Cunha.
The lower house’s vote on whether to impeach Rousseff is based on allegations that she broke fiscal rules to mask budget problems by shifting around government accounts. Cunha, Cardozo alleged, was striking out at Rousseff for refusing to help him avoid an ethics probe into allegations he received millions in bribes from the sprawling corruption scheme in the Petrobras oil company.
In filing Rousseff’s motion Thursday, Solicitor General Jose Eduardo Cardozo argued Cunha had presented the impeachment push in such a way that went beyond the actual accusations against Rousseff. “Violence has been committed against the democratic state,” Cardozo shouted, gesticulating wildly.
Cardozo made the same claim about the report submitted to the special congressional committee that voted Monday to send the impeachment measure to the full Chamber of Deputies. He said the discussion was “contaminated” because it included the overall political crisis, the recession and unrelated corruption probes. The drama comes as Brazil is facing problems on many fronts: the economy is expected to contract nearly 4 percent this year, the Zika virus, which causes birth defects, has become a health crisis in poor, northeastern states and the country is less than four months away from hosting the Summer Olympic Games.
“We are not talking about the merits of impeachment” but rather the process, Cardozo told reporters Thursday afternoon in Brasilia. The extraordinary session began just hours after the Supreme Court denied a government motion to annul the impeachment proceedings. Cardozo had argued that the process had been “contaminated” because lawmakers were considering things that went outside the accusations, such as the country’s worst recession in decades and the Petrobras scandal.
After the court’s decision, when journalists asked Cardozo whether Rousseff would still try to block the vote Sunday, Cardozo said: “We are going to analyze this process step by step.” After a seven-hour session, the justices decided 8-2 early Friday that they should not be involved at this stage of the process.
Cardozo added that the government can go to the Supreme Court to discuss the merit and that it will be done “at the appropriate time.” He did not elaborate.
The pro-impeachment camp needs two-thirds of the 513 votes in the lower house, or 342 votes, to send the proceedings to the Senate for a possible trial. If the Senate agreed to take it up, Rousseff would be forced to step down until the measure was voted on.The pro-impeachment camp needs two-thirds of the 513 votes in the lower house, or 342 votes, to send the proceedings to the Senate for a possible trial. If the Senate agreed to take it up, Rousseff would be forced to step down until the measure was voted on.
Both government and opposition forces say they have enough votes to win Sunday, but daily counts by Brazilian media suggest the opposition is much closer to victory.Both government and opposition forces say they have enough votes to win Sunday, but daily counts by Brazilian media suggest the opposition is much closer to victory.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.