Brazil’s Rousseff — ex-guerilla in fight for political life

Brazil’s Rousseff — ex-guerilla in fight for political life

Sebastian Smith — Updated 23 minutes ago

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff survived torture as a guerrilla member under the military dictatorship. Four decades later, as president, she’s fighting for her political survival.

After those dark days in the 1970s, when Rousseff belonged to a violent Marxist underground group, she rose to become Brazil’s first woman president.

But less than a year into her second term, the lower house of Congress voted on Sunday to send her impeachment case to the Senate, which is expected to decide in May whether to open a trial.

The impeachment charges centre on Rousseff’s government’s allegedly illegal juggling of funds to cover budget holes leading up to her re-election in 2014.

Brazil’s 68-year-old “Iron Lady” calls the impeachment a coup and has fought fiercely, trying to repair a coalition left in tatters by the defection of her vice president and the country’s largest party, the PMDB.

More:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1252921/brazils-rousseff-ex-guerilla-in-fight-for-political-life