Opinion

A real coup is brewing in Brazil

parliamentary coup brazil michel temer senate congress
Dilma Rousseff’s 2016 impeachment was not the real coup. Photo: Antonio Cruz/ABr

When Dilma Rousseff kicked off her chaotic second term in 2015, leftist Brazilians began to talk about a coup. Supposedly, the coup was orchestrated by the right wing to remove her from office with the goal of implementing a radical austerity agenda. Of course, Rousseff’s impeachment process remains full of objectionable details: from the fact that the very congressmen who judged her unfit for office are, for the most part, battling their own corruption accusations, to the fact that one week after Temer took office, one of his closest allies was caught on tape defending a “pact” to “stop the bleeding” caused by corruption investigations.

While the impeachment process was undeniably a farce, and Michel Temer’s administration is indeed trying to implement a radical pro-business agenda, it’s tough to label the impeachment as a “coup.” Like it or not, all impeachments are politically motivated, and our...

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