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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has been formally impeached by the country’s senate

Having stood down in mid-May, Rousseff has been battling impeachment charges for more than 10 months, with her opponents claiming she issued spending budget decrees without approval ahead of her 2014 re-election.

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Brazilian Sen. José Medeiros previously said that Congress and the Brazilian government will need to work together to rebuild Brazil if Rousseff is impeached.

A separate vote will be held on whether Rousseff will be barred from public office for eight years.

The impeachment brings to an end 13 years of ruling from the Workers’ party, and leaves Brazil in a highly tense situation where Temer is equally (if not more) unpopular than his predecessor.

Rousseff, a former guerrilla fighter who was tortured and imprisoned during the country’s dictatorship, says she broke no laws and notes that previous presidents used similar accounting measures. “Brazil has given itself a new chance, to look to the future and construct and agenda for reform in line with the economic crisis”.

The 81 senators must answer the question: “Has Dilma Rousseff committed a crime of responsibility?”.

Rousseff’s impeachment is the final stroke in the disastrous fall from grace of the Worker’s Party of Brazil, whose time in power started out with an era by unprecedented prosperity for many Brazilians and the country’s growing swagger in global politics.

Rousseff asserted that impeachment was the price she paid for refusing to quash a wide-ranging government investigation into a political bribery scandal involving the state oil company, Petrobras. Speaking to the nation in televised address Wednesday evening, Temer hit back at Rousseff. “It’s you who is breaking the constitution”.

She told followers at the presidential residence on Wednesday she’s form “the strongest, most tireless and most active opposition that a coup government could suffer”.

Temer said he had tasked his Cabinet with pushing forward budget and pension reforms as well as proposals to create jobs.

In May, Temer took over as interim president after the Senate impeached and suspended Rousseff.

“From today on, the expectations are much higher for the government”.

Meanwhile, Ms Rousseff laid out her plans for the economy, which was already deteriorating rapidly at that stage.

A statement from Caracas calls Rousseff’s impeachment and removal a “parliamentary coup” and says the withdrawal of its ambassador is “definitive”.

Numerous 81 senators signed up to speak Tuesday afternoon on the fifth day of her impeachment trial, prompting Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski to announce that they would go as long as it took for everyone to be heard.

A lead lawyer for the case against Rousseff, Senator Janaina Paschoal, wept as she asked forgiveness for causing the president “suffering”, but insisted it was the right thing to do.

Ousted Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is firing back at the Senators who removed her from office.

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Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese reported from Brasilia and AP writer Peter Prengaman reported from Rio de Janeiro.

Dilma Rousseff during her impeachment trial