BRASÍLIA: Dilma Rousseff survived torture as a guerrilla opposing Brazil's military dictatorship before rising to become president, but she has plunged from the heights to face an impeachment trial on Thursday.
The last time she faced trial is immortalized in a black and white photograph: the 22-year-old Rousseff with a defiant look on her face as she stood before a military court for belonging to a Marxist underground group.
Few would have believed during those dark days in the 1970s that the young rebel in the photograph would become Brazil's first female president.
Even fewer would have predicted that less than halfway through her second term she would be back on trial, this time in the Senate.
Brazil's 68-year-old "Iron Lady" is accused of illegal accounting maneuvers in which her government took unauthorized loans to cover budget holes during her tight re-election race in 2014.
True to her fiery past, Rousseff calls the impeachment a "coup." After the Senate voted in May to hold an impeachment trial, she promised "to resist to the very end."
"I have come up against hugely difficult situations in my life, including attacks which took me to the limit physically," she said. "Nothing knocked me off my stride."
Comments
Comments are closed.