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Brazil’s sacked leader Rousseff to head home, fight on

“Cuba reiterates its solidarity with President Dilma and comrade Lula as well as with the Worker’s Party, and is confident that the Brazilian people will defend the social achievements that have been attained and will resolutely oppose the neoliberal policies that others may try to impose on them and the plundering of its natural resources”.

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The head of the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, Romero Juca, also condemned on Twitter the Senate’s vote separating the matter of Rousseff’s ouster from her future political life. “History will absolve Dilma Rousseff if you convict her”, he added.

In 1970, Dilma was arrested and put in prison, where she was beaten and tortured with electricity. In order to remove me from office, I was sentenced to a political death penalty, the worst that a Brazilian person can go through. The dictatorship met its eventual demise in 1985 with the return of an elected government. “Argentina renews it wishes to continue working with the government of Brazil to resolve issues of mutual interest in the bilateral, regional and multilateral agenda, as well as the strengthening of the Mercosur”, the Ministry stated then. Brazilians and their leaders will need the same fortitude if the country is to reclaim its position as one of the world’s emerging powers.

Nonsense, Rousseff countered time and again, proclaiming her innocence up to the end.

Temer, who was once Rousseff’s deputy but is not from her party, was sworn in to finish out her term, through the next general election in 2018. The police prevented marchers from reaching the headquarters of the PMDB, the main party in the ruling coalition.

This is a parliamentary coup, but a coup after all, Dilma said in statements made at the Alvorada Palace.

Brazil has been hit by protests demanding “Fora Temer” (Temer out) since the right-wing political was first temporarily installed in May. He lives in Rio de Janeiro.

Two days later, she was indeed impeached. “Unfortunately, we lost”, she said, referring to her impeachment.

Since the beginning of the process, Argentine President Mauricio Macri has shown full support for the Temer administration.

Temer also plans to submit this month his controversial pension reform, likely raising tensions with powerful groups such as the military, public school teachers and police officers. That’s how unpopular and hated he is.

The impeachment process that led to the removal of Dilma Rousseff from office on Wednesday, August 31, increased the gap among the continent’s governments.

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In a separate vote on whether or not to ban Rousseff from office for the next eight years, Senators voted 42 in favour and 36 against, with three abstentions – falling short of the threshold required to pass. While law professors debated whether the infractions were sufficient grounds for impeachment, the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to the Senate to make the judgment. The development in Brazil is a fitting reminder to many Nigerians who had believed that the declarations of the executive are inviolable in parliament.

Brazilian women protest against the coup government of Michel Temer