Rousseff: ‘I am the victim’
Ousted Brazilian president vows to fight impeachment
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff vowed Thursday to use “all legal means” to fight permanent ouster in an impeachment trial, raising the specter of continued political turmoil as interim leader Michel Temer tries to rescue a sinking economy.
Speaking hours after the Senate voted to impeach her, in what might prove her last official event within the presidential palace, the nation’s first female president blasted the process as “fraudulent” and said it was an in- justice more painful than the torture she endured under a past military dictatorship.
She again rejected critics’ accusation that she had used illegal accounting tricks in managing the federal budget.
“I may have committed errors but I never committed crimes,” Rousseff said during a 14-minute address, flanked by dozens of top officials and brass from her left-leaning Workers’ Party.
The Senate’s decision came after a months-long battle that laid bare the country’s fury over corruption and economic decay just months before it hosts the Summer Olympics.
Speaking to several thousand supporters as she left the Planalto presidential palace, Rousseff said the accusations are nothing more than a red herring, part of a “coup” orchestrated by her power-hungry foes.
“I am the victim of a great injustice,” she said, adding, “I fought my whole life and I’m going to keep fighting.”
Rousseff has repeatedly said she would fight, but hasn’t said how and most avenues have already been closed off. Up until now, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s highest court, has declined to weigh in on the merits of the case against her.
The Senate has 180 days to conduct a trial and decide whether Rousseff should be permanently removed from office — in which case Temer would serve out the remainder of her term, which ends in December 2018.
Some of her supporters have promised a campaign of protests and strikes that could complicate the efforts of interim President Temer to govern.
Impeachment supporters contend Temer, a career politician and constitutional expert who has published a collection of poetry, is the best hope for reversing Brazil’s economic collapse.
Temer, 75, has promised to cut spending and privatize many sectors controlled by the state.