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Brazil justice orders impeachment process for VP Temer, heightens crisis
Source: Reuters
World | Tue Apr 5, 2016 5:56pm EDT
Brazil justice orders impeachment process for VP Temer, heightens crisis
BRASILIA | BY ALONSO SOTO AND ANTHONY BOADLE
A Brazilian Federal Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ordered Congress to start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer, deepening a political crisis and uncertainty over leadership of Latin America's largest country.
Justice Marco Aurelio Mello told the lower house to convene a special committee to consider the ouster of Temer over charges he helped doctor budget accounting as part of President Dilma Rousseff's administration.
Another committee is already analyzing similar charges against Rousseff, a leftist who is scrambling for support to defeat an impeachment vote in the lower house as early as mid-April.
Although the unprecedented decision can be overturned by the full supreme court, Mello's ruling raises questions about future governance of a country mired in political turmoil, an economic recession and an institutional crisis increasingly being handled by Brazil's judiciary.
Because Temer is next in line for the presidency if Rousseff were impeached, the possibility of his ouster complicates the calculation that lawmakers must make if they vote to oust Rousseff. If one is guilty of the charges, the ruling suggests, the other is guilty too.
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Brazil justice orders impeachment process for VP Temer, heightens crisis
BRASILIA | BY ALONSO SOTO AND ANTHONY BOADLE
A Brazilian Federal Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ordered Congress to start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer, deepening a political crisis and uncertainty over leadership of Latin America's largest country.
Justice Marco Aurelio Mello told the lower house to convene a special committee to consider the ouster of Temer over charges he helped doctor budget accounting as part of President Dilma Rousseff's administration.
Another committee is already analyzing similar charges against Rousseff, a leftist who is scrambling for support to defeat an impeachment vote in the lower house as early as mid-April.
Although the unprecedented decision can be overturned by the full supreme court, Mello's ruling raises questions about future governance of a country mired in political turmoil, an economic recession and an institutional crisis increasingly being handled by Brazil's judiciary.
Because Temer is next in line for the presidency if Rousseff were impeached, the possibility of his ouster complicates the calculation that lawmakers must make if they vote to oust Rousseff. If one is guilty of the charges, the ruling suggests, the other is guilty too.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-rousseff-idUSKCN0X21MN
