BRAZIL : Demonstration against president Dilma Roussef as impeachment process put on hold

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• published: 13 Dec 2015
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Protests in Sao Paulo are expected against Brazil president Dilma Roussef who faces an impeachment procedure. The first woman to lead Latin America's biggest country could be ejected one year into her second term on charges that her government illegally managed the federal budget. But many of the politicians directly responsible for Rousseff's fate do not have clean slates either. Of the 65 congressional deputies elected in controversial circumstances Tuesday to a committee scrutinizing the impeachment case, about 30 percent face criminal probes, according to a detailed count by specialist website Congresso em Foco.Brazil's impeachment plot thickened Wednesday with speculation rife over whether President Dilma Rousseff will be abandoned by a key ally and the Supreme Court stepping in to put the whole process on hold. For Rousseff, the court's decision late Tuesday to freeze the impeachment machine for a week offered badly needed respite as she fights to avoid being ejected one year into her second term at the head of Latin America's biggest country. Brazil's first female president, a moderate leftist, is accused of illegal budgeting maneuvers, but says the practices were long accepted by previous governments. She calls the attempt to bring her down a "coup."