Behind Brazil’s leadership crisis
On Monday, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil took the stand to defend herself against impeachment charges, calling the trial an injustice and a coup d’etat. But her downfall was already inevitable. Two days later, Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to impeach Rousseff for breaking fiscal laws to cover up a budget deficit, intensifying the political polarization that has wreaked havoc in the country of 200 million. A deep economic recession hurt Rousseff’s popularity and weakened her governing coalition, but what sealed her fate was the upsurge of public anger over the discovery by federal investigators of a $20 billion corruption scheme at the state oil company, Petrobras. The probe, known as Lava Jato for the Portuguese “car wash” because it began at a service station, has implicated more than 100 government officials, businessmen, and high-ranking officials, and is now Brazil’s largest corruption investigation. The Gazette spoke with Frances Hagopian, the Jorge...