The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has been removed from office following a long-anticipated vote in the Senate. According to reports, 61 out of 81 senators voted to impeach Mrs. Rousseff after a five-day trial and intense debate.
Mrs. Rousseff brought the senate’s wrath because she plugged budget deficits by moving funds between government budgets, which is illegal under Brazilian law. Critics, citing the illegality of her actions, also said that she was concealing the country’s economic problems in order to increase her chances of being reelected in 2018.
Mrs. Rousseff stated that her impeachment was a response by corrupt politicians scared by her investigations into the national oil company Petrobas and other reforms she instituted.
Her former Vice President, later political opponent, Michel Temer, of the PMDB party, is expected to be sworn in Wednesday evening and serve Mrs. Rousseff’s remaining presidential term—until January 1st, 2019.
