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Alexander Romanovich: an impeachment attempt is one of the forms of the US impact on the excessively independent Latin America states 01 ñåíòÿáðÿ 2016 Alexander Romanovich, Vice-Chairman of the State Duma commented on ousting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in impeachment vote by Brazil’s Senate: The senators have impeached suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Sixty-one senators voted for her removal from office, and only twenty were against it. Vice-President of Brazil Michel Temmer will exercise the presidential functions till the end of the presidential term in 2018. A lengthy impeachment process of ousting Dilma Rousseff goes back to a corruption scandal within and around infamous state-owned company Petrobras. Some of Dilma Rousseff’s Labor Party (LP) teammates turned out to be involved in this scandal. No legal proceedings of corruption have been issued personally against the President. She was officially incriminated distortion of information about the state’s federal budget to raise her chances to win the 2014 presidential elections. Rousseff was also accused of illegal financing of the electoral campaign. Needless to say that the opponents of the left-oriented LP, which is still Brazil’s largest and most influential party, tried to assure that Rousseff couldn’t but be aware of these violations committed by her party mates, and they also criticized her for the "country’s economic collapse". Of course, it is far too strong a word. Actually, it is possible to talk here about a rather serious economic recession resulting mainly from some external factors. The world business has arranged a real trap for Rousseff: oil prices, ore and soybean prices as well as prices for Brazil’s other export products have declined. Citizens’ perception of the political situation started to change. In addition, Rousseff’s active intervention policy worsened the business climate and the situation in Brazil’s budget sphere as well. This is true. But no one will be able to deprive the Labor Party, which governed the country for 13 years and whose members Inacio da Silva and Dilma Rousseff were presidents, of its significant social achievements. Almost forty million people have been relieved from poverty. To do it, the LP government used money payments to buy and construct housing as well as cheap credits. The middle class has almost doubled. The period of the LP ruling might bindingly be called socially targeted. But for some external factors, this party would have done a lot more in a social sphere for ordinary people of Brazil. Such governments on the American continent do not stay in power for a long time because they irritate Washington. Of course, the days of classical pro-American coups in Latin America have gone by. The USA stands left-centered regimes in its geopolitical area for some time but in the end, it finds the ways for their isolation and substitution by more controllable. Brazil, in this respect, is going to be "a harder nut to crack" than Venezuela, Argentina and Chilly. Washington is sure to have disliked an active position of Brazil in BRICS, and its rapprochement with Russia. The elections in Venezuela showed that Washington had been increasing its military presence in South America which managed to restructure its policy and economy on the basis of national principles. This might have happened either due to an oversight of the US or due to its excessive involvement in the Middle East situation. As for the impeachment attempt, it is one of the forms the United States uses for making impact on the excessively independent countries of the continent. But this time, they have succeeded in Brazil. The matter is if the Americans will manage to take full advantage of all this. But in any case, we must make some appropriate and somewhat preventive steps regarding the Latin American policy of the USA. This will help our partners on the continent and instill confidence in the safe future of BRICS. But still there are some grounds for optimism in the near future. Michel Temmer, Vice-President the Leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), who filled Rousseff’s place, repeatedly emphasized the significance of Brazil’s membership in BRICS. Last time he spoke about it in Moscow at the meeting of the BRICS interstate commission.
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