President Dilma Rousseff Impeached in Brazil

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Observers on the ground in Brazil report passions inflamed, families torn apart, friendships strained or ended, children confused, and social media on fire over the vote on April 17, 2016 in Brazil’s lower house of Congress to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.  Protestors for and against the measure have flooded Brazilian streets, with plenty of raised voices and the threat of violence.  The president and her supporters at home and abroad call the move a “coup,” an interpretation congressional deputies did little to counter with their many, contradictory, and even bizarre reasons for voting to impeach.  The stated reason was an accounting measure that the president argues other presidents have used. Commentators have often noted that the drive for impeachment began after the President of the Chamber of Deputies and former ally of the president’s PT party, Eduardo Cunha, came under investigation for corruption. Commentators around the region see dark implications for all of Latin America.