Rousseff’s Brazilian Betrayal

Alex Castillo, Copy Editor

Brazil’s House of Representatives voted to impeach president Dilma Rousseff on April 17 amid accusations of her involvement with insider trading and accepting bribes. Rousseff has also been held for her negligence regarding the ongoing Brazilian recession.

 

Like in the United States, Brazil requires a two-thirds vote from the House to impeach the president before the motion goes up to the Senate. At the end of the voting, 367 lawmakers of the 342 required to keep the motion alive voted against Rousseff.

 

A Brazilian patriot and Downey resident, Fernando Carlos, heavily agrees with Rousseff’s impeachment.

 

“The president is a crook,” Carlos said. “I really do not like how my country is being controlled by her, a dictator. She knows nothing about politics.”

 

President Rousseff was discovered to have hidden a massive national deficit from the people as a way to ensure her re-election in 2014. At the time of discovery, Rousseff was the head of Petrobras, the nation’s leading oil exporting company and the company that lied in the heart of the deficit investigation.

 

Isabella Cardozo, a Brazilian immigrant, also supports the impeachment.

 

“I hate that Brazil looks so bad now,” Cardozo said. “We’re very poor in my country, which is why I came here, and the president does nothing.”

 

Protestors took to the streets in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, and spoke out against President Rousseff. A one-kilometer-long barricade was set up by Brazilian police to protect the supporters of Rousseff from the protests. Brazilian soccer chants resonated throughout the major cities of Brazil. In São Paulo, some protestors even brought out a massive inflatable doll of Rousseff wearing a striped prison outfit.

 

Bianca Alves, a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party back home in Brazil, also thinks Rousseff’s impeachment in the right thing to do.

 

“The president is a liar,” Alves said. “She says that she’s for the people but doesn’t do what she promises to do. She has ruined Brazil and the only thing that keeps it alive is the Brazilian pride we all have back home in Rio de Janeiro.”

 

The motion will now go to Brazil’s Senate. If the impeachment is approved in the Senate, Rousseff must now step down from presidency for 180 days to defend herself in an impeachment trial. If this trial rules against Rousseff, Brazil may see a new president within the year and be on the path to economic success in the next decade.