New leader dives into tough new job

Dilma Rousseff remained defiant and called on supporters to mobilize in final presidential speech

Brazil's interim president Michel Temer kicked off his new administration on Friday, seeking to resuscitate Latin America's largest economy and steer clear of the corruption scandal that helped bring down his predecessor.

The former vice-president installed a business-friendly Cabinet on Thursday, just hours after senators voted to suspend his boss-turned-enemy, Dilma Rousseff, and open an impeachment trial against her.

Brazil's interim President Michel Temer gives a thumb up after the Senate voted to impeach President Dilma in Brasilia on Thursday. Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

The tumultuous transfer of power ended 13 years of rule by the Workers' Party, which helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty but became mired in corruption scandals, recession and political paralysis.

"We don't have much time," Temer, a veteran of the PMDB party, said on taking office.

"We must rebuild the foundations of the Brazilian economy and significantly improve the business environment for the private sector so it can get back to its natural role of investing, producing and creating jobs."

Vulnerable to scandal

But Temer faces many of the same stumbling blocks as his predecessor, plus a few of his own.

Political analysts warned his honeymoon may not even last until he opens the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Aug 5 - South America's first.

Temer is just about as disliked as the deeply unpopular Rousseff. A recent poll found he would receive just two percent of the vote in a presidential election.

He will also face a deeply hostile left resentful of being sidelined in what it calls a "coup".

Temer appealed on Thursday for "dialogue" to heal the wounds of the impeachment battle, but stoked opponents' outrage with his cabinet appointments: all 24 of his ministers are white men.

That was a bitter pill to swallow for supporters of Brazil's first woman president.

And Temer remains exposed to the swirling scandal at state oil company Petrobras, which has snared top members of his party, the PMDB, as well as Rousseff's PT.

Temer, 75, is not under investigation himself. But some of his ministers are.

Long goodbye

A one-time guerrilla tortured under Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1970s, Rousseff was suspended over allegations she illegally used loans from state banks to boost public spending and hide the depth of the budget deficit during her 2014 reelection campaign.

She claimed the accounting maneuver, known as "fiscal backpedaling", was commonly accepted practice in Brazil and is not an impeachable offense.

But in the all-night Senate session leading up to the impeachment vote, it was clear lawmakers were holding her responsible for far more than that, as one speaker after another attacked her for presiding over an economic collapse, a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal and political gridlock.

She lost the vote 55 to 22 - far more than the simple majority the pro-impeachment camp needed in the 81-member Senate.

Defiant to the end, she used what may have been her last speech from the presidential palace to condemn the "coup" against her yet again and urged her supporters to mobilize.

"What is at stake is respect for the ballot box, the sovereign will of the Brazilian people and the constitution," she said, dressed in white and flanked by her soon-to-be-sacked ministers.

"I may have made mistakes, but I committed no crimes."

AFP - Xinhua - Reuters

Influence on Olympics downplayed

The International Olympic Committee and Rio 2016 Organizing Committee said on Thursday that preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will not be affected by the Brazilian Senate's vote to continue the impeachment process against the president.

With less than three months to go, the Rio Olympics is facing political turbulence, the Zika virus and the country's economic recession. However, the IOC and Rio 2016 Organizing Committee show strong support and confidence toward the first Olympics in South America.

"We remain confident about the success of the Olympic Games in August," IOC President Thomas Bach said.

Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, said: "We are private, not politics. The Games preparation is in a normal stage."

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/14/2016 page9)