Some 2 000 Rousseff supporters also rallied near the Senate in Brasilia and a few hundred in Rio de Janeiro, but no incidents were reported.
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For Rousseff to be removed, at least 54 of the 81 senators must vote in favor.
Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff gave an impassioned personal defence yesterday (Monday) in her only appearance at a trial expected to rule in favour of her impeachment and removal from office.
Brazil’s first female president is a former guerrilla fighter who was jailed and tortured during the country’s dictatorship, and Rousseff drew a connection between her past and the situation today.
I am accused unjustly and arbitrarily, Rousseff said, adding that the charges of manipulating public funds that are the basis of her political trial are pretexts for bringing down a legitimate government and preparing a coup supposedly justified by the Constitution. Rousseff said he tried to “blackmail” her into providing votes from her Workers’ Party to quash an ethics inquiry into him.
However, momentum to push her out of office appears unstoppable, fuelled by deep anger over Brazil’s devastating recession, months of political paralysis and a vast corruption scandal centred on the state oil giant Petrobras.
Rousseff was mounting an emotional last bid to avoid being removed from power for good, ending 13 years of leftist rule in Brazil.
Her last-minute defense started around 9:30 am (1230 GMT), with scores of senators scheduled to question her. She was still talking and gesturing 12 hours later as the session wore on into the night.
“An unreal Brazil was sold. We are moving backwards really fast now”.
Rousseff was accused of provoking the crisis which Brazil is now facing, and answered with irony that the irregularities of which she is accused, alone, could never provoke an economic turmoil of such great proportions.
“I know I will be judged, but my conscience is clear”.
There appeared to be little Rousseff could say however to save her presidency.
Closing arguments will begin after her testimony Monday, followed by voting, possibly extending into Wednesday.
Rousseff is reminding senators that she was re-elected in 2014 by 54 million voters.
Since then, her then vice president Michel Temer has taken Brazil’s top seat as acting president.
Rousseff has barely double digit approval ratings.
Temer is hardly more popular, according to opinion polls.
A small crowd of loyalists gathered from early morning outside the Senate and supporters shouted “Dilma come back!” from cars as they drove past the building’s entrance.
Keeping to his residence while the Senate drama unfolded, Temer greeted members of the Brazilian Olympic team and said he was following proceedings “with complete calm”, Globo news site reported.
She warned senators that ousting her would hurt a young democracy while defiantly promising to go down fighting in what many see as a losing battle.
“I can’t help but taste the bitterness of injustice” of this process, she said.
During the questioning session, Rousseff complained that the country is “one step away from coup”, and said she feared “the death of democracy” because now Brazil does not have continuity in social improvements that was achieved during her government and that of her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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A man carries a banner with the name of Brazil’s suspended President Dilma Rousseff at a camp in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016. As the disturbance continued, at around 8:00pm local time, trucks with military police entered the avenue to use water cannons on the barricades erected by protesters.
