Dilma’s Ouster in Brazil and Fears for Latin American Democracy

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It was a political death foretold, but shocking nonetheless. After her dramatic last speech before the Brazilian Senate on August 29, 61 senators voted to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office on August 31, 2016. It was the final act in a year-long drama that had paralyzed Latin America’s largest country. Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, who began her political career as a leftist guerrilla jailed and tortured in the 1970s by Brazil’s military government, was kicked out of office for allegedly breaking fiscal laws in her management of the federal budget. But her supporters say she was really removed because she would not shield fellow politicians under investigation in Brazil’s ongoing investigation into billions of dollars in kickbacks at the state oil company, Petrobras. She is replaced by her vice president, Michel Temer, who (along with many senators and members of his new cabinet) is under investigation for corruption.  Observers throughout the region call her removal a coup, and see grave threats to democracy in Latin America.

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