22 April 2016•Update: 28 April 2016
By Maria Paz Salas
SANTIAGO, Chile
The president of Brazil is in New York, leaving the leadership of her country in the hands of the vice president, Michel Temer.
Dilma Rousseff has accused Temer of being one of the leaders of a “coup” against her administration by advancing impeachment proceedings.
The Brazilian leader will attend a U.N. event Friday where she will denounce as illegal opposition attempts to remove her of office.
Before departing Brazil on Thursday, she vowed “to fight in every trench I can to defeat this blow, I will go where needed.”
Rousseff’s remarks drew wide criticism from opposition parties because she chose to present her case in an international forum.
One senator said the president’s action was a “crime against the country.”
While in New York, Rousseff will take part in a signing ceremony of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at UN headquarters where she is expected to deliver a speech.
The Brazilian president is threatened by impeachment after lawmakers in the lower house of Congress voted Sunday in favor to begin a political trial against Rousseff, who is accused of manipulating public accounts ahead of the 2014 presidential election.
The case now depends on the Senate to approve the measure with a simple majority in mid-May.
A group of protesters demonstrated outside of Temer´s house in Sao Paulo.
Temer, who will assume the presidency if the Senate approves impeachment and, who is also under investigation, is in the process of trying to form a new Cabinet in the event Rousseff is suspended from office.
