I Was Sentenced to a Political Death Penalty: Rousseff

Ousted Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said she was sentenced to “a political death penalty” a day after the Senate impeached her and removed her from office for the rest of her term.

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“We are facing a parliamentary coup that represents the nonconformity of the coup plotters and I'm being a victim of impeachment, the highest penalty that can dictated in Brazil,” the left-wing leader said in during a press conference at the at the presidential residence in Brasilia.

The Senate voted 61 to 20 to remove Rousseff on alleged charges of having illegally manipulated government accounts. She was stripped of her office and replaced by the conservative former Vice President Michel Temer. 

“Repression of demonstrations in underway in Brazil … I'm proud to say that my government always dealt with opposition demonstrations,” Rousseff said in a clear reference to the repression experienced in the past days by opponents to Temer. 

“I prefer the voice of deaf streets, than the silence of dictatorship,” she added. 

The impeachment puts an end to 13 years of a progressive governing by the left-wing Workers Party, or PT. The move has been condemned by other progressive governments in the region like Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and El Salvador. 

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“This country has been a history of slavery and oligarchic, with People lacking of fundamental rights. We took out Brazil from the hunger map,” Rousseff said. 

Rousseff appealed to the Supreme Court Thursday to scrap the Senate’s decisionto  impeach her and instead convene a new Senate trial.