TheBrazilian Congress launched impeachment proceedings against president Dilma Rousseff who is accused ofmanipulating government finances to get re-elected last year. The petition acceptedby the Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha, was filed by several jurists,including Helio Bicudo, one of the PT's founders. Theaccusations against Rousseff are unrelated to the corruption scandal,which has uncovered a complex multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme atstate-owned oil company Petrobras and led to the arrests of top business andpolitical leaders, but has not implicated the president directly.Rousseff,however, has seen her popularity drop precipitously since being narrowlyreelected last year. The Petrobras scandal has taken down members of her party,and the country has entered its worst recession in decades.Accordingto Datafolha poll only 10% of respondents characterized Rousseff's governmentas good, while 22% called it regular, and 67% considered it bad orterrible. Definitively this is not the best scenario to face the impeachment.Part2InBrazilian constitutional law, the expression crime of responsibilitycorresponds to political-administrative violations not subject to penalties ofa criminal nature. On committing crimes of responsibility, the public agentviolates the duties inherent to his public position or function.InBrazil, impeachment is defined in the Federal Constitution and in Ordinary Lawno. 1,079, dated 04.10.50. These instruments grant the Federal Senate exclusiveauthority to judge the President and Vice President of the Republic for crimesof responsibility, as well as Ministers of State for crimes of the same natureconnected to those said to have been committed by the President or VicePresident, and the minsters of the Federal Supreme Court, Attorney General ofthe Republic and the Chief Federal Legal Advisor.TheBrazilian Senate is composed of 81 members or three from each state and the FederalDistrict and their tenure in office is eight years. Every four years, therepresentation of each State and the Federal District is renewed alternately byone third and two thirds of the members.Governors,mayors and the members of municipal councils are also subject to impeachmentfor crimes of responsibility. However, these trials are not held before theFederal Senate.TheGovernors of the States and Federal District are judged by their respectiveAssemblies or as determined in the state constitutions. Normally, once therequired authorization has been granted by the Assembly or Legislative Chamber,Governors are judged by a mixed tribunal composed of 5 State Deputies and 5Senior Judges, with the Senior Judge who holds the position of President of theCourt of Justice of the State or Federal District as the presiding judge. Themembers of the court of impeachment are chosen as follows: the representativesof the legislature are elected by the full Assembly or chamber, while thosefrom the judiciary are chosen by lot.Mayorsand Councilpersons are judged by the Municipal Legislative Chambers, accordingto 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 removalfrom office and do not include loos of political rights or ineligibility forpublic office. However, article 1, line b of Complementary Law 64/90,states that office-holders who have been found guilty are ineligible forelection during the remaining period of the mandate for which that person wasoriginally elected and in the three-year period subsequent to