Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff Impeached By Senate Over Corruption

Brazil's Senate has voted to impeach 68year old President Dilma Rousseff after a monthslong fight with barely 3months to hosts Olympics over corruption and economic decay.
The Senate no has 180 days to conduct a trial and decide whether Rousseff should be permanently removed from office.
Rousseff's enraged backers called the move a coup d'etat and threatened wide-scale protests and strikes. Her foes, meanwhile, insisted that she had broken the law and that the country's deep political, social and economic woes could be tackled only with her on the sideline.

The 55-22 vote means that Vice President Michel Temer, Rousseff's ally-turned-enemy, will take over as acting president later Thursday while she is suspended. 

"Did anyone think that we would get to 2018 with a recovery under this government? Impossible," said Jose Serra, the opposition Social Democratic Party's failed presidential candidate in the 2010 race that brought Rousseff into power. "The impeachment is just the start of the reconstruction."

Rio de Janeiro will host the Olympics in August. The run-up to the Games has been marred by security questions, the Zika virus, polluted water in venues for sailing and rowing, slow ticket sales and the political and economic turmoil that led to Rousseff's impeachment.

The International Olympic Committee said it is looking forward to working with the new Brazilian government ahead of the Olympics.

"There is strong support for the Olympic Games in Brazil, and we look forward to working with the new government to deliver successful Games in Rio this summer," IOC president Thomas Bach said.

Bach said preparations for the Aug. 5-21 Games "have now entered into a very operational phase, and issues such as these have much less influence than at other stages of organizing the Olympic Games."

Rousseff's impeachment ends 13 years of rule by the Workers' Party, which is credited with lifting millions out of abject poverty but vilified for being at the wheel when billions were siphoned from the state oil company Petrobras.

Analysts say Rousseff got herself into trouble with a prickly manner and a perceived reticence to work with legislators that may have alienated possible allies. Rousseff, however, has suggested that sexism in the male-dominated Congress played a role in the impeachment.