IMPEACHMENT IS PATRIOTIC- PART 2
Autor: Rony Curvelo | Publicado: 2015-12-16T07:31:00-08:00





The
Brazilian Congress launched impeachment proceedings against president Dilma Rousseff who is accused of
manipulating government finances to get re-elected last year. The petition accepted
by the Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, was filed by several jurists,
including Helio Bicudo, one of the PT's founders. &nbsp;

The
accusations against Rousseff&nbsp;are unrelated to the corruption scandal,
which has uncovered a complex multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme at
state-owned oil company Petrobras and led to the arrests of top business and
political leaders, but has not implicated the president directly.



Rousseff,
however, has seen her popularity drop precipitously since being narrowly
reelected last year. The Petrobras scandal has taken down members of her party,
and the country has entered its worst recession in decades.



According
to Datafolha poll only 10% of respondents characterized Rousseff's government
as “good,” while 22% called it “regular,” and 67% considered it “bad or
terrible.” Definitively this is not the best scenario to face the impeachment.



Part
2

In
Brazilian constitutional law, the expression “crime of responsibility”
corresponds to political-administrative violations not subject to penalties of
a criminal nature. On committing “crimes of responsibility”, the public agent
violates the duties inherent to his public position or function.

In
Brazil, impeachment is defined in the Federal Constitution and in Ordinary Law
no. 1,079, dated 04.10.50. These instruments grant the Federal Senate exclusive
authority to judge the President and Vice President of the Republic for crimes
of responsibility, as well as Ministers of State for crimes of the same nature
connected to those said to have been committed by the President or Vice
President, and the minsters of the Federal Supreme Court, Attorney General of
the Republic and the Chief Federal Legal Advisor.

The
Brazilian Senate is composed of 81 members or three from each state and the Federal
District and their tenure in office is eight years. Every four years, the
representation of each State and the Federal District is renewed alternately by
one third and two thirds of the members.

Governors,
mayors and the members of municipal councils are also subject to impeachment
for crimes of responsibility. However, these trials are not held before the
Federal Senate.

The
Governors of the States and Federal District are judged by their respective
Assemblies or as determined in the state constitutions. Normally, once the
required authorization has been granted by the Assembly or Legislative Chamber,
Governors are judged by a mixed tribunal composed of 5 State Deputies and 5
Senior Judges, with the Senior Judge who holds the position of President of the
Court of Justice of the State or Federal District as the presiding judge. The
members of the court of impeachment are chosen as follows: the representatives
of the legislature are elected by the full Assembly or chamber, while those
from the judiciary are chosen by lot.

Mayors
and Councilpersons are judged by the Municipal Legislative Chambers, according
to the terms of Decree Law no.201, dated February 27, 1967. In these cases,
there is a basic difference that deserves mention. When judging mayors and councilpersons,
the powers of the respective legislative councils are restricted to removal
from office and do not include loos of political rights or ineligibility for
public office. However, article 1, line “b” of Complementary Law 64/90,
states that office-holders who have been found guilty are ineligible for
election during the remaining period of the mandate for which that person was
originally elected and in the three-year period subsequent to the end of that
legislature.

If
there is no consistent connection or link between the crime of responsibility practiced
by the President or Vice President and the crime practiced by a Minister of
State, the latter will be judged by the Federal Supreme Court, the highest
court of the judicial system, and not by the Federal Senate. Consequently, one
concludes that crimes of responsibility committed exclusively by Ministers of
State will always be judged by the Supreme Court and nobody else.

Now
that I explain how the process begins, next article I will analyze how that the
Process of Impeachment of a Brazilian president should works before the
Brazilian Federal Senate. As I write this article many political parties are
trying to change the rite at the Supreme Court to accommodate their interests. 


Let’s
talk about that next!