Brazil’s Rousseff brands VP a traitor, denounces ‘coup’

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took off the gloves Tuesday, branding her vice president a traitor and coup-plotter ahead of an impeachment vote scheduled in Congress for this Sunday. Rousseff delivered a blistering speech a day after a leaked audio recording of her vice president, Michel Temer, practicing the speech he would make if Rousseff is impeached surfaced in the media.

If there were any doubts about my denunciation that a coup is underway, there can’t be now.

Rousseff

The embattled leader is in the final stretch of a bruising attempt to save her presidency from impeachment on charges that she illegally manipulated government accounts to mask the effects of recession during her 2014 re-election. After a congressional committee voted to recommend Rousseff’s ouster in chaotic and bad-tempered scenes late Monday, the stage was set for a showdown in the full lower house this weekend. If the house reaches a two-thirds majority, or 342 deputies, Rousseff’s case is sent to the Senate. Anything less, and Rousseff will walk away with her job.

Rousseff