MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Late on Sunday, Brazil's lower house lawmakers voted in favor of impeaching the president, sending the vote to the upper chamber known as the Federal Senate.
"I will fight, like I have always done in my life… I am sure that we will have the opportunity to defend ourselves in the Senate," Rousseff told reporters, as quoted by CNN.
Earlier in the day, she decried the impeachment procedure initiated against her, comparing the move with a coup.
Rousseff has been facing a wave of public discontent for over a year amid Brazil’s struggling economy and a major corruption scandal in the state-owned Petrobras petroleum company. The opposition has accused the president of corruption and of violating financial rules by manipulating state bank accounts to close budget gaps.