{"id":74024,"date":"2016-05-23T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=74024"},"modified":"2016-05-23T14:39:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T13:39:49","slug":"watch-first-interview-with-brazils-president-dilma-rousseff-since-the-senates-impeachment-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/05\/watch-first-interview-with-brazils-president-dilma-rousseff-since-the-senates-impeachment-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: First Interview with Brazil\u2019s President Dilma Rousseff since the Senate\u2019s Impeachment Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Glenn-Greenwald-Original_350\"<\/a>(Para ler e assistir a vers\u00e3o desse artigo e v\u00eddeo em Portugu\u00eas, clique aqui<\/a>)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

19 May 2016 – <\/em>Last Thursday [12 May], Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was suspended from the presidency when the Senate voted<\/a>, 55-22, to try her on the impeachment charges, approved by the lower house, involving alleged budgetary maneuvers (\u201cpedaladas\u201d) designed to obscure the size of public debt. Although she nominally remains the president and continues to reside in Bras\u00edlia\u2019s presidential palace<\/a>, her duties are being carried out by her vice president, Michel Temer \u2014 now \u201cinterim\u201d President Temer \u2014 and the\u00a0right-wing, corruption-tainted, all-white-male cabinet he has assembled (due to Brazil\u2019s coalition politics, Temer is from a different party than Rousseff). Rousseff\u2019s\u00a0suspension will last up to 180 days as her\u00a0Senate impeachment trial takes place, at which point she will either be acquitted or (as is widely expected) convicted and permanently removed from her office.<\/p>\n

\"dilma-interview1-article-header\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday [17 May], I spoke to President Rousseff in the presidential palace for her first interview since being suspended. The 22-minute interview, conducted in Portuguese with English subtitles, is below. Rather than subdued, resigned, and\u00a0defeated, Rousseff \u2014 who was imprisoned and tortured for three years in the 1970s by the U.S.-supported military dictatorship that\u00a0ruled\u00a0the country for 21 years \u2014 is more combative, defiant, and resolute than ever.<\/p>\n

Since he has taken power,\u00a0Temer has exacerbated the fears<\/a> of those who regard impeachment as an attack on democracy or even a coup.\u00a0Unlike Rousseff, he\u00a0is personally implicated in\u00a0corruption scandals. He was just fined for election-law violations and faces an eight-year ban\u00a0on running for any office (including the one into which he was just installed). Polls show only 2 percent of Brazilians would support him in an actual election, while close to 60 percent want him impeached.<\/p>\n

\"Interim<\/a>

Interim President Michel Temer waves with Sen. A\u00e9cio Neves, left, at a signing ceremony for new government ministers at the presidential palace in Bras\u00edlia, May 12, 2016.
Photo: Igo Estrela\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Worse, Temer\u00a0created a worldwide controversy<\/a> when he appointed 23 ministers, all<\/em> of whom were white and male in a deeply diverse country, and one-third of whom are under suspicion in various corruption inquiries. And his government \u2014 beloved by hedge funds and Wall Street but very few other factions \u2014 has begun preparing the groundwork\u00a0for a radical right-wing attack on the country\u2019s social safety net<\/a>, which\u00a0could never attract the support of actual voters if it were subjected to a democratic framework. Meanwhile, as the Olympics arrive in Rio in 10 weeks, protests are breaking out all over the country\u00a0and are certain to become more destabilizing and disruptive as the Temer government attempts to cut some of the most critical\u00a0social programs established by Rousseff\u2019s party (which has won four straight national elections).<\/p>\n

I spoke with President Rousseff about all of these matters, as well as whether it is now justified for Brazilians to use civil disobedience against the government she describes as \u201cillegitimate,\u201d and the likely impact on\u00a0international affairs and economic realignment from this extreme and undemocratic change of ideology in the world\u2019s fifth most populous country and seventh largest economy. (Interim President Temer has not yet responded to\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>request for an interview.)<\/p>\n

The interview can be watched\u00a0on the recorder below. A full transcript appears below that.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r1nE8E-0u5E<\/p>\n

Recent articles about Brazil from The Intercept:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n