Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff Compares Pain of Impeachment to Torture
— -- Brazil's Senate voted today to begin an impeachment trial for the country's first woman president.
And the suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, compared the pain of being impeached to the torture she suffered under the country's past military dictatorship.
"It's the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being -- to be condemned for a crime you didn't commit," she said at a news conference today. "I may have committed errors but I never committed crimes."
The vote comes amid the country's worst economic crisis since the 1930s and with just three months before the world flocks to Brazil for the Olympics.
After an all-night marathon of speeches, Brazil's Senate voted 55-22 to impeach Rousseff for allegedly breaking budget laws.
The move will suspend Rousseff from office and appoint Vice President Michel Temer in her place during her impeachment trial, which could last for up to six months.
Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and has made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the proceedings, but the move was rejected.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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