FILE - In this June 14, 2016 file photo, suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a press conference for foreign journalists at the Alvorada residential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil. Brazil's Senate voted Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016, to put Rousseff on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in her managing of the federal budget. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistribu)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil's Senate on Wednesday voted to put suspended President Dilma Rousseff on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in managing the federal budget.
After some 15 hours of debate, senators voted 59-21, the final step before a trial and vote on whether to remove her from office, expected later this month.
The outcome was widely expected: The Senate voted in May to impeach and remove Rousseff from office for up to 180 days while the trial was prepared.
Wednesday's vote underscored that efforts to remove her have gained steam despite her attempts to woo senators who have expressed doubt about the governing ability of interim President Michel Temer.
Temer, who was Rousseff's vice president-turned-nemesis, took over in May. He has been sharply criticized for appointing a Cabinet of all white men in a country where more than 50 percent are non-white. Three of his ministers have been forced to resign for allegations related to corruption, and despite promises to get Congress moving after months of paralysis, he has struggled to push through reforms.
- Brazil’s Temer vows to jumpstart country’s flagging economy following Rousseff fall
- Brazil’s new leader, Michel Temer, is a career politician with a beauty queen wife
- Next U.S. president to face friendlier Latin America as leftist regimes there recede
- Brazil finance minister picks economist from the opposition as head of Central Bank
- Brazil’s interim president takes over for a woman but shuns them in his cabinet
- Rural miners in Brazil hope for diamond finds in rough conditions
Rousseff has repeatedly said she did nothing wrong. She has argued that other former presidents did similar things in their handling of the federal budget. She has argued that behind her removal are attempts to tamp down a wide-ranging corruption probe into billions of dollars in alleged kickbacks in state oil company Petrobras.
Fox News' "Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world.