Brazil: Rousseff Saga Reaches Anti-Climactic Finish… For Now

Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 in favor of impeaching President Dilma Rousseff on grounds that she fudged the national accounts to hide a budget deficit during an election year. The vote ends a long and tumultuous few years in Brazilian politics that started with Rousseff’s re-election in 2014. Rousseff is spectacularly unpopular in Brazil, with low approval ratings and an ongoing deep recession. Her rivals, however, are hardly beloved. Many of them are implicated in corruption scandals that are truly bi-partisan. Rousseff’s former VP turned rival, Michel Temer, and his all-white male cabinet will serve out the rest of the term. They will have to dodge corruption investigations, a severe recession and a deeply divided nation. Good luck?