Brazil’s president ousted after yearlong political struggle

Brazil’s Senate has voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office for manipulating the budget.

Rousseff – the country’s first female president – was accused of illegally using money from state banks to boost public spending in order to patch budget holes in 2014, masking the country’s problems as it slid into its deepest recession in decades.

Although polls suggest there is ample rejection of Dilma Rousseff as a president, the question of whether she is guilty of a crime punishable with the loss of her mandate has proven explosively controversial in Brazil.

She is now barred from running for elected office for eight years.

“The Brazilian people must be aware that nothing illegal and illegitimate is being done here”, she said.

Michel Temer has been sworn in as Brazil’s new leader following the ouster of President Dilma Rousseff.

The presentations came in the final phase of a political fight that has polarized Brazil since the impeachment measure was introduced in the lower Chamber of Deputies late a year ago.

The suspended president testified for 14 hours straight on Monday, NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro reports. “All 81 senators voted”, the Federal Senate said in a statement.

Ms Rousseff testified in her own defence on Monday in an uncompromising speech that branded the plot to oust her a “parliamentary coup”, warning that “democracy is condemned along with me”. On 17 April, Ms Rousseff lost her first major battle in Congress, when 367 MPs approved the impeachment proceedings against her. There were 61 votes in favor and 20 against. In May, the same body voted 55-22 to impeach and suspend her. While previous petitions to the court have failed to stop the impeachment process, at the very least legal wrangling will keep the issue front and center. “I did not commit a crime”, Rousseff told senators in a 30-minute address.

Now that President Michel Temer is no longer just an interim president, he faces the hard task of passing unpopular reform to lead the country out of its worst recession in a decade: IHS expects the economy to contract by 3.1% this year; inflation is currently around 12%; and the fiscal deficit stands at around 10% of GDP.

The 75-year-old, known more as a backroom wheeler-dealer than street politician, took over in an interim role after Rousseff’s initial suspension in May. She said corrupt lawmakers linked to the scheme conspired to oust her to derail the investigation into billions in kickbacks at the oil giant. Temer’s Cabinet has been roundly criticized for its lack of diversity, and three ministers were forced to step down within a month of taking office because of corruption allegations.

Rousseff, 68, a former Marxist guerrilla, said earlier this week that she had committed no crime and said she was proud she’d been “faithful to my commitment to the nation”.

Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese reported from Brasilia and AP writer Peter Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro.