Brazilian President mounts final plea against impeachment

PanARMENIAN.Net - The top attorney for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's government made his last stand Monday, April 4 against the effort to impeach her, lambasting the case and warning of a stain on democracy, AFP reports.

Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo made his final arguments before a congressional impeachment committee, a clutch moment in a political crisis that has brought the government of Latin America's biggest economy to the brink of collapse as it battles a deep recession and corruption allegations.

Cardozo denied Rousseff took out unauthorized government loans to hide the depth of the recession, and said the accusation was in any case not an impeachable offense.

"As such, impeaching her would be a coup, a violation of the constitution, an affront to the rule of law, without any need to resort to bayonets," he told the 65-member committee.

The hearing kicked off two crucial weeks that could decide Rousseff's political fate.

The commission's recommendation on whether to try Rousseff, expected on April 11, will set the tone for a vote soon after in the lower house.

Two-thirds of the Chamber of Deputies, or 342 votes, are needed to send the case for trial in the Senate. The lower house vote is expected to take place on April 17, newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported.

As the impeachment battle played out, Rousseff scrambled to cement new alliances after her main coalition partner, the PMDB party, went over to the opposition last week.

The PMDB, a political juggernaut, is the party of house speaker Eduardo Cunha, the man leading the impeachment push, and Vice President Michel Temer, who will become president if it succeeds.

The attorney general called the case an "act of revenge" by Cunha, a scandal-plagued but powerful politician.

He accused Cunha of unleashing the impeachment storm because he was furious the Rousseff administration "didn't support him" when the house ethics committee opened an investigation into allegations the speaker was involved in a huge embezzlement and bribery scandal at state oil company Petrobras.

"A new government must not be born with this stain of illegitimacy," Cardozo warned.

"Brazil's democracy is at stake... Removing a head of state elected by the people is an exceptionally grave measure that cannot be based on her unpopularity."