August 31, 2016 will always be remembered as the day of the affront to the Constitution of the Republic of Brazil because of the fraudulent way the sovereign will of 54 million of Brazilians was overturned. They had endorsed with their vote --just two years before-- the re-election of Dilma Rousseff as their legitimate President.

The impeachment of Rousseff by the Senate had many features that add uniqueness to the process. For example, the fact that the head of state removed from her high office was not accused of corruption, embezzlement, or any other form of criminal offense. The president was accused only of having signed three budget decrees with which she covered up accounts payable by the government to ask the banks for new credits without having yet paid previous loans.

Rating this offense as a "crime of responsibility," –the only charge by which a president can be subjected to this type of trial (impeachment) in Brazil-- has been the main theme of Brazil´s parliamentary debate. In that forum, the Workers Party (PT) which supports Rousseff, has no parliamentary majority, despite being the political group with the most supporters nationwide.

Undoubtedly it is striking that Dilma was not formally charged with corruption while at least 49 of the 81 senators who judged her (60% of all the senators who condemned her) have pending accusations for crimes ranging from money laundering, financial crimes, corruption and electoral crimes. Furthermore, it should be noted that there are corruption allegations against some of the very parliamentarians who backed the "impeachment" of Dilma and also against those who opposed it.

According to reports, when PT senator Gleissi Hoffman said on that the Brazilian Senate "has no moral authority" to judge Rousseff, the statement came as a bombshell. This was especially true within a senate accused of promoting a "coup" by accepting a crime of sprucing up accounts as a crime of responsibility, something never seen until now.

The now former president Dilma Rousseff said--shortly before the court verdict was given by the Federal Senate that judged her in the impeachment process–-that Brazil has taken a step that constitutes a serious breach of the country’s constitutional and democratic order, because in a presidential regime as Brazil has, the cessation of the mandate conferred by more than 54 million electors is not a prerogative of a parliamentary majority; only the people can do this through an election.

The deposed head of state reaffirmed at the Senate Plenary that in her self-defense she would argue that she had not committed any crime of responsibility, so –she said-- she was unfairly and arbitrarily accused. She declared she was not fighting for her personal term of office or attachment to power, but for democracy, truth, justice and the welfare of the people. She stressed that she has a clear conscience for the way she held the Presidency of the Republic.

Rousseff emphasized that what was at stake was the respect for the polls, the sovereign will of the people and the constitution; the social conquests achieved in the last 13 years; the sovereign role of the country on the international stage; Brazil´s national self-esteem, and the defense of the natural resources of the country and its future.

She added that the Brazilian conservative elite wanted power at all costs and fought with all means to destabilize and wear down her government. The results of the 2014 election, when she was reelected, were a blow to them. They did everything they could first, to prevent her taking office and then to make it impossible for her to govern.

Referring to the impeachment process, she said it was opened by explicit blackmail from the President of the Chamber of Representatives, Eduardo Cunha, and has been marked, from start to finish, by a clamorous diversion of power.

The peoples of Latin America have many reasons to respond with intense solidarity against this coup against the Brazilian people. Otherwise, the results of the management of the governments of Lula Da Silva and Dilma Rousseff -- their health, housing and other programs which hit at the heart of inequality in Latin America and pulled millions of Brazilians out of extreme poverty-- would have been of little avail.

They represented concrete and serious initiatives against US hegemony on the continent by partnering with India, Russia, China and South Africa in the BRICS group of advanced developing countries, demonstrating the full exercise of their political independence.

September 2, 2016.

- Manuel E. Yepe

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. http://englishmanuelyepe.wordpress.com/