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Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted to open impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. AP
Police stand outside Congress where lawmakers debate whether to oust the Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday, April 16, 2016. Sunday's vote will determine whether the impeachment proceeds to the Senate. Rousseff is accused of violating Brazil's fiscal laws to shore up public support amid a flagging economy.(Photo: Dana Felipe/AP)
SÃO PAULO<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— Lawmakers in Brazil handed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>embattled President Dilma Rousseff a sobering defeat late Sunday, voting overwhelmingly to impeach her.
After more than five hours of sometimes loud deliberations,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the leader of the Workers Party in the lower Chamber of Deputies conceded defeat,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Reuters reported,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>saying her allies couldn't keep<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Rousseff from facing trial in the Senate on charges of manipulating budget accounts.
The Chamber of Deputies voted 367-137<span style="color: Red;">*</span>late Sunday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in favor of impeachment, exceeding the 342 votes needed to pass<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the measure, the Associated Press reported.
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Luiz Carlos Hauly, a deputy in the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party, said Rousseff had to go.
"In Europe they change their government when it doesn't have the majority," he said. "This administration has no majority. It doesn't have the means to govern."
Simone Morgado, a member of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement, said impeachment proponents were trying to derail a democratically elected president.
"Given that Dilma didn't commit any crime, like so many others in this chamber, which has no shame, I'm voting 'no!'," she said.
Outside the legislature, waves of pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators flooded into the capital of Brasilia from across the huge nation.
Lawmakers began voting late Sunday afternoon after three hours of heated debate on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>whether to impeach Rousseff on charges that she<span style="color: Red;">*</span>misappropriated funds from public<span style="color: Red;">*</span>banks to shore up the government's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>finances as she faced a tough re-election in 2014.
She denies the allegations and has described the impeachment push as a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>coup.
The lawmakers were each being allowed to speak before casting their votes, a process that lasted hours.
If the Senate votes to proceed with the matter, Rousseff will be suspended, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the top job would be handed to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Vice President Michel Temer, who Rousseff has criticized as being part of the push against her. The Senate then conducts impeachment hearings.
The impeachment crisis comes as Brazil prepares for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, tackles to combat the Zika<span style="color: Red;">*</span>virus linked to birth defects and tries to recover from the worst<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recession in a century.
At the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>congressional building in the capital of Brasilia, Eduardo Cunha, the house speaker leading the drive to oust Rousseff,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>announced the rules for Sunday's proceedings, prompting some lawmakers to shout and wave<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Brazilian flag and signs that say, "Goodbye, sweetheart."
Outside the legislature, a metal wall more than a mile long was installed to keep apart<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rival sides of pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrators.
Before the vote, a protest against the impeachment took over the road lining Copacabana beach in Rio, where the atmosphere resembled Carnival, with trucks blasting samba music.
The impeachment fight had become<span style="color: Red;">*</span>increasingly bitter:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Last-minute injunctions were<span style="color: Red;">*</span>filed by the opposition<span style="color: Red;">*</span>against Rousseff<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and her mentor, former president Luiz Ignacio da Silva, or<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Lula," for pressuring lawmakers to vote against the impeachment but were rejected by a court.
Lula is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation into whether he was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>involved in a wide-ranging corruption scandal involving Petrobras, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>national oil company.
A protester in Brasilia holds a caricature of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff that reads in Portuguese "Big oil" outside Congress, where lawmakers debate whether to oust Rousseff on Saturday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Eraldo Peres,AP)
Rousseff has not been implicated in that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>scandal. But she attempted to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>appoint Lula to her Cabinet after prosecutors tied him to the Petrobras<span style="color: Red;">*</span>graft to give him legal protections. The Supreme Court suspended the appointment. Protesters took to the streets.
Lula assumed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>power 13 years ago and with his left-wing Workers Party<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vastly expanded public spending on social welfare programs that are widely<span style="color: Red;">*</span>credited with lifting millions out of poverty. While the worldwide economic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>downturn now casts doubts over Lula's policies, he remains beloved by many<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Brazilians. Rousseff, however, has never commanded his popularity,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>especially after she moved to cut benefits.
Polls indicate that around two-thirds of Brazilians favor impeachment.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Still, some believe the ruling elite are tainted, and appalled at the entire<span style="color: Red;">*</span>matter.
Temer, 75, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>former member of Rousseff's coalition government and leader of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>moderate Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, broke from Rousseff last<span style="color: Red;">*</span>month to better position himself in case impeachment occurs. The next<span style="color: Red;">*</span>presidential election is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in 2018.
Fabiano de Castro, a doctor from São Paulo, said he's pessimistic about the situation.
"We already had a president impeached for corruption and corruption still<span style="color: Red;">*</span>spread," he said,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>referring to Fernando Collor in 1992, against whom he<span style="color: Red;">*</span>protested. "I don't trust the congress<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that's conducting the process, as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>almost half of them are being investigated for corruption themselves."
Brazil's Supreme Court discusses impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, on April 14, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Eraldo Peres, AP)
But some said the crisis underscores a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>lack of leadership in the country.
"This is a major story for Latin America's biggest country," said Anthony<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Pereira, director of the Brazil Institute at King's College London. "It<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shows the extent to which President Dilma Rousseff has lost control of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>economic and political situation in her country."
Contributing: Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
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