Brazilian Impeachment

The president of Brazil, home of more than 200 million people, Dilma Rousseff, is currently fighting for her political life. On April 17th, the lower house of the Brazilian Congress voted 2/3s in favor of impeaching Rousseff.

Let’s take a look at the events that led us to this point. From 1964-1985, Brazil was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship. Under this dictatorship corruption thrived. Even when the dictatorship collapsed, the corruption stayed. A leader in bringing down the dictatorship, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ran for President in 2003. Under his administration, Brazil went through an economic and social boom. Life expectancy increased as well as the economy. He brought thousands, if not millions, out of poverty. However he was not without blame. There were reports that he bribed members of Congress to vote his way. But still he was reelected in 2007. However he couldn’t run again in 2011 so his handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff, ran instead for his Workers Party, or PT in Portuguese. She was a guerilla fighter during the dictatorship and was tortured by the government. She wins and is sworn in. However while she is in office a massive scandal breaks out, one of the largest in the history of any democracy. It involves Petrobras, the state run oil company. It was involved in a very common corruption scandal, where contractors would bribe the government officials for a profitable contract.

Petrobras is a huge company in Brazil, making up 10 percent of their GDP. One man alone received received 100 million dollars and while this was all happening the person in charge of Petrobras was none other that Dilma Rousseff. It was clear that this scandal wasn’t going away. So calls for impeachment began. Rallies started all over the nation. And this was not helped when Dilma Rousseff gave former President Lula a high ranking job in the government. This prevented him from investigation by any court other than the highest court in Brazil. Judge Sérgio Moro released an audio recording in which Dilma Rousseff confirms that the reason for the appointment was to shield her predecessor from prosecution. Her approval rating was only at 11 percent. Then on April 17 the vote began. Brazilian impeachment system works like this: First the lower house of the Parliament has to vote with a 2/3rds majority to continue the impeachment hearings. Then the upper house needs a plain majority to continue the hearings. Finally, there will be a trial in the lower house and then a 2/3rds majority to finally impeach the President.

On April 17th, 2016 the Lower House voted to continue the impeachment hearings. Since the lower house voted resoundedly, chances are the same motion will pass through the upper house. Then it is up to the trial. This is part of a larger crisis facing Brazil a combination of economic woes, crime, Zika, and the disastrous olympics.