BRASILIA : D-Day for Collor
The Brazilian Senate sits in judgment today over President Fernando Collor de Mello, impeached and suspended by the lower house of Congress on charges of profiting from an income-peddling and graft racket.
If the Senate convicts Collor, 43, he will lose his job permanently and also lose the right to hold any public office for eight years.
Conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the 81-member Senate, and straw polls have indicated that the votes are there. Collor would be succeeded by Vice President Itamar Franco, who has been acting as the country’s president since Oct. 2.
So far, Franco has made no headway in efforts to reverse a deep recession and inflation, which is running at more than 20% per month.
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