25 August 2016•Update: 26 August 2016
By Senabri Silvestre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s tenure looks in jeopardy as a survey showed Wednesday the Senate is all but ready to vote her out of office.
According to the survey conducted by O Globo newspaper, 51 members of the 81-seat Senate -- upper house of Congress -- would vote in favor of removing Rousseff, only 3 shy of the 54 -- or two-thirds majority -- needed for the decision to pass.
Only 19 of the remaining 30 senators told the Brazilian journal they would support the suspended president in the vote to be held later this week.
The results cast a dark shadow over the fate of Rousseff, whose political trial begins Thursday morning with witness testimony followed by her defense’s presentation.
The democratically-elected president was suspended in May to face a political trial for alleged violation of fiscal rules to hide a budget deficit ahead of the 2014 presidential elections.
The charges are “crimes of responsibility” and not criminal but administrative sanctions could strip her from her post.
If the actions passed, interim President Michel Temer will remain in his position until elections are held in 2018 -- the end of Rousseff’s term.
If Rousseff survives the vote, she would recover her position and Temer would go back to his post as vice president.
Rousseff, who has maintained her innocence reiterated Wednesday that her impeachment is "a farce" woven by the economic "elite" that wants to end with the conquests of social classes.
She said economic powers are trying to implement neoliberal policies to privatize “everything they can” and submit Brazilian sovereignty to the big capitals.
