Editing Impeachment (section)

=== Brazil===

{{See also|Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff|Impeachment proposals against Michel Temer}}

In Brazil, as in most other Latin American countries, "impeachment" refers to the definitive removal from office. The [[president of Brazil]] may be provisionally removed from office by the [[Chamber of Deputies (Brazil)|Chamber of Deputies]] and then tried and definitely removed from office by the [[Brazilian Senate|Federal Senate]]. The [[Constitution of Brazil|Brazilian Constitution]] requires that two-thirds of the Deputies vote in favor of the opening of the impeachment process of the president and that two-thirds of the senators vote for impeachment. State governors and municipal mayors can also be impeached by the respective legislative bodies. Article 2 of Law no. 1.079, from 10 April 1950, or "The Law of Impeachment", states that "The crimes defined in this law, even when simply attempted, are subject to the penalty of loss of office, with disqualification for up to five years for the exercise of any public function, to be imposed by the Federal Senate in proceedings against the president of the republic, ministers of state, ministers of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, or the attorney general."

'''Initiation:''' An accusation of a responsibility crime against the president may be brought by any Brazilian citizen; however, the president of the Chamber of Deputies holds prerogative to accept the charge, which if accepted will be read at the next session and reported to the president of the republic.

'''Extraordinary Committee:''' An extraordinary committee is established, consisting of members from each political party in proportion to their party's membership. The committee is responsible for assessing the need for impeachment proceedings. The president is given ten parliamentary sessions to present their defense. Following this, two legislative sessions are held to allow for the formulation of a legal opinion by a rapporteur regarding whether or not impeachment proceedings should be initiated and brought to trial in the Senate.

The rapporteur's opinion is subject to a vote within the committee. If the majority accepts the rapporteur's opinion, it is deemed adopted. However, if the majority rejects the rapporteur's opinion, the committee adopts an alternative opinion proposed by the majority. For instance, if the rapporteur recommends against impeachment but fails to secure majority support, the committee will adopt the opinion to proceed with impeachment. Conversely, if the rapporteur advises impeachment but does not obtain majority approval, the committee will adopt the opinion not to impeach.

If the committee vote is successful, the rapporteur's opinion is considered adopted, thereby determining the course of action regarding impeachment.

'''Chamber of Deputies:''' The chamber issues a call-out vote to accept the opinion of the committee, requiring a supermajority of two thirds in favor of an impeachment opinion (or a supermajority of two thirds against a dismissal opinion) of the committee, in order to authorize the Senate impeachment proceedings. The president is suspended (provisionally removed) from office as soon as the Senate receives and accepts from the Chamber of Deputies the impeachment charges and decides to proceed with a trial.

'''The Senate:''' The process in the Senate had been historically lacking in procedural guidance until 1992, when the Senate published in the Official Diary of the Union the step-by-step procedure of the Senate's impeachment process, which involves the formation of another special committee and closely resembles the lower house process, with time constraints imposed on the steps taken. The committee's opinion must be presented within 10 days, after which it is put to a call-out vote at the next session. The vote must proceed within a single session; the vote on President Rousseff took over 20 hours. A simple majority vote in the Senate begins formal deliberation on the complaint, immediately suspends the president from office, installs the vice president as acting president, and begins a 20-day period for written defense as well as up to 180-days for the trial. In the event the trial proceeds slowly and exceeds 180 days, the Brazilian Constitution determines that the president is entitled to return and stay provisionally in office until the trial comes to its decision.

'''Senate plenary deliberation:''' The committee interrogates the accused or their counsel, from which they have a right to abstain, and also a probative session which guarantees the accused rights to contradiction, or ''audiatur et altera pars,'' allowing access to the courts and due process of law under Article 5 of the constitution. The accused has 15 days to present written arguments in defense and answer to the evidence gathered, and then the committee shall issue an opinion on the merits within ten days. The entire package is published for each senator before a single plenary session issues a call-out vote, which shall proceed to trial on a simple majority and close the case otherwise.

'''Senate trial:''' A hearing for the complainant and the accused convenes within 48 hours of notification from deliberation, from which a trial is scheduled by the president of the Supreme Court no less than ten days after the hearing. The senators sit as judges, while witnesses are interrogated and cross-examined; all questions must be presented to the president of the Supreme Court, who, as prescribed in the Constitution, presides over the trial. The president of the Supreme Court allots time for debate and rebuttal, after which time the parties leave the chamber and the senators deliberate on the indictment. The president of the Supreme Court reads the summary of the grounds, the charges, the defense and the evidence to the Senate. The senators in turn issue their judgement. On conviction by a supermajority of two thirds, the president of the Supreme Court pronounces the sentence and the accused is immediately notified. If there is no supermajority for conviction, the accused is acquitted.

Upon conviction, the officeholder has his or her political rights revoked for eight years, which bars them from running for any office during that time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Maciel|first=Lourenço|date=2020-02-08|title=Was it a coup? Democracy and Constitutionality in the 2016 Brazilian Impeachment Process|url=https://dilmarousseffimpeachment.com/2020/02/08/impeachment-dilma-rousseff/|url-status=dead|access-date=2021-03-05|website=Dilma Rousseff's Impeachment|language=en|archive-date=24 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210324215552/https://dilmarousseffimpeachment.com/2020/02/08/impeachment-dilma-rousseff/}}</ref>

[[Fernando Collor de Mello]], the 32nd president of Brazil, resigned in 1992 amidst impeachment proceedings. Despite his resignation, the Senate nonetheless voted to convict him and bar him from holding any office for eight years, due to evidence of [[bribery]] and misappropriation.

In 2016, the [[Chamber of Deputies (Brazil)|Chamber of Deputies]] initiated [[Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff|an impeachment case]] against President [[Dilma Rousseff]] on allegations of budgetary mismanagement, a crime of responsibility under the Constitution.<ref>{{cite news |author=Andrew Jacobs |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/world/americas/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment-vote.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/world/americas/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment-vote.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Brazil's Lower House of Congress Votes for Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 April 2016 |access-date=13 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref> On 12 May 2016, after 20 hours of deliberation, the admissibility of the accusation was approved by the Senate with 55 votes in favor and 22 against (an absolute majority would have been sufficient for this step) and Vice President [[Michel Temer]] was notified to assume the duties of the president pending trial. On 31 August, 61 senators voted in favor of impeachment and 20 voted against it, thus achieving the {{frac|2|3}} majority needed for Rousseff's definitive removal. A vote to disqualify her for five years was taken and failed (in spite of the Constitution not separating disqualification from removal) having less than two thirds in favor.<ref name=":0" />