Daily Times

BRASÍLIA: Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff told the country’s Senate on Monday that her impeachment trial is a coup d’etat and that she is innocent.

Rousseff — Brazil’s first female president — was testifying for the first time at her trial, hours before senators were to start voting on her fate. All indications point to her being removed from office, ending 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party in Latin America’s biggest country. Branding accusations against her “a pretext for a constitutional coup,” Rousseff called herself a fighter for democracy.

“I’ve come to look your excellencies in the eye and to say that I did not commit a crime,” Rousseff, 68, said in a calm, firm voice from the Senate chamber podium. “I did not commit the crimes for which I have been accused unjustly and arbitrarily.” Rousseff is accused of having taken illegal state loans to patch budget holes. But momentum to push her out of office is also fueled by deep anger at Brazil’s historic recession, political paralysis and a vast corruption scandal centered on state oil giant Petrobras. Cheering supporters greeted her as Rousseff arrived in the Senate.

“Dilma, warrior of the Brazilian homeland!” the crowd of supporters shouted. And inside the chamber, there was standing room only and a crackling atmosphere of tension and anticipation. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who presided, warned the public and senators not to applaud or otherwise interrupt Rousseff’s speech. She was to face questioning from allies and opponents after speaking. Rousseff came to the showdown accompanied by heavyweight allies, including her presidential predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and a dozen former cabinet members.

A small crowd of loyalists gathered from early morning outside the Senate and supporters shouted “Dilma come back!” from cars as they drove past the building’s entrance. However, there appeared to be little Rousseff could say to save her presidency. Closing arguments will begin after her testimony Monday, followed by voting, possibly extending into Wednesday. Opponents say they will easily reach the needed two-thirds majority — 54 of 81 senators — to remove her from office. In that case, Rousseff’s former vice president turned political enemy, Michel Temer, will be confirmed as president until elections in 2018.

Temer, from the center-right PMDB party, has already been acting president since May, using his brief period in power to steer the government rightward. He plans to leave Tuesday or Wednesday on his first official foreign trip, a G20 summit in China, where officials say he will push to restore the tattered reputation of Brazil’s economy. Criticized for lacking a popular touch or appetite for backroom politicking, Rousseff has barely double digit approval ratings. However, supporters outside the Senate said they backed Rousseff’s claim to be the victim of trumped up charges in a right-wing coup.

“I am fighting to defend democracy and the dignity of the people. This has been a persecution against the Workers’ Party, Dilma and the Brazilian people,” said one of about 100 protesters outside the Senate, retired teacher Marlene Bastos, 65. Although most Brazilians have abandoned Rousseff, there is lingering sympathy for a woman who was imprisoned and tortured by the military dictatorship in the 1970s for belonging to a far-left urban guerrilla cell. Although her presidency has been mired in the Petrobras embezzlement and bribery scandal, Rousseff herself has never been charged with trying to enrich herself — unlike many of her prominent accusers and close allies.

Temer is hardly more popular, according to opinion polls. He faces harsh questioning over his legitimacy as an unelected president and was loudly booed at the recent Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.