“A Very Dangerous Thing for Democracy”

When Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached by the lower house of Parliament on Sunday night over accusations of improper budgetary maneuvers, it only intensified the crisis that has engulfed the country over the past several months. Dilma—as she is known—was elected in 2010, and re-elected four years later on the Workers’ Party, or PT, ticket.* Her former boss and predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—known as Lula—had been a broadly popular figure known for his outreach to the poor, and for engendering the hatred of a good chunk of the country’s middle class. But he too now finds himself enmeshed in corruption investigations, which have overtaken much of the PT, involve the state oil company Petrobras, and threaten the administration’s survival. A vote in the upper house is forthcoming.  Read more.