Brazil Sete votes to try Rousseff

Brasilia, May 7: A special impeachment committee in Brazil’s Sete recommended that President Dilma Rousseff be put on trial over charges of breaking budget laws, setting the stage for her potential suspension and new leadership for Latin America’s largest economy. The committee voted 15-5 on Friday to approve a report that concluded there was enough evidence to try Rousseff in the Sete for allegedly using accounting trickery to hide a wide budget gap.
Rousseff has denied the allegations. “I am the living proof that a coup is being orchestrated against all advances made in the last 13 years,” she said. Rousseff also addressed the decision to suspend Eduardo Cunha, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who began the impeachment process against her in December. Cunha is facing graft charges from a corruption probe at Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras. “It took a person void of any moral and ethical principles, accused of money laundering and hidden accounts, to perpetrate this coup,” she said. (IANS)