Beleaguered Brazilian president running out of time

19 April 2016 - 02:22 By Bloomberg

Dilma Rousseff is running out of time and options as her enemies close in on her determined on the first impeachment of a Brazilian president in 24 years.After a dramatic defeat in an impeachment vote in the lower house of Congress on Sunday, she might have only a couple of weeks in which to turn around growing momentum for her ousting in the Senate.Rousseff's main aides have said she will fight back during her upcoming trial in the upper house of Congress and might again challenge the impeachment process before the Supreme Court. Others in her ruling coalition suggested she might back calls for new elections."She won't resign and there's no time or consensus for elections, so she'll continue fighting back the way she has done so far," said Ricardo Ribeiro, a political analyst at Sao Paulo business consultancy MCM. "Frankly, I don't think there's much to prevent her ousting at this point."The opposition on Sunday night garnered 367 votes, 25 more than the two-thirds majority it needed to send the impeachment motion to the Senate.Senator Romero Juca, head of vice-president Michel Temer's PMDB party, said late on Sunday that the opposition had the simple majority required to temporarily remove Rousseff from office to stand trial in as little as 15 days."The next stage - in which she would be tried in the Senate with the president of the Supreme Court presiding - could be much closer," according to Marco Maciel, of Bloomberg...

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