Brazil's Rousseff to face impeachment trial; Temer assumes presidency. The vote was 55-22

Vice President Michel Temer will become Brazil's acting president on Thursday after the Senate voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office for up to six months while she is tried in that chamber for allegedly violating budget laws.

The vote to impeach and suspend Rousseff came after a marathon session in the upper house that began Wednesday and ended early Thursday.

Only a simple majority was needed to force Rousseff to step down and face an impeachment trial, but in an ominous sign for the president the vote was 55-22, or more than the two-thirds majority needed to convict her on charges that she purposely delayed the repayment of loans from state-owned banks and carried out other fiscal maneuvers in 2014 and 2015 to disguise the size of the budget deficit.

Critics say she resorted to budget trickery in part to secure her re-election two years ago. Rousseff denies any wrongdoing, had refused to step down and called the bid to impeach her a coup.

After the vote, Rousseff dissolved her Cabinet on Thursday via a decree in the Official Gazette.

• The center-left president would return to office if acquitted, but if she is convicted then the business-friendly Temer, a former ally turned foe, would serve out her term, which is due to expire on Jan. 1, 2019.

The impeachment drive was launched as Brazil grapples with a recession and high inflation, as well as the fallout from a massive corruption scandal centered on Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras.
 EFE
12/5/16
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