[JURIST] A Brazilian Senate [official website; Spanish] committee on Thursday voted 14-5 to continue impeachment proceedings against suspended president Dilma Rousseff, who is charged with “[failing] to comply with tax and budget laws on the issues of additional credit decrees.” Following the committee’s decision [UPI article] to continue on with the impeachment, the full Senate will hold a vote to determine whether the final trial phase is to occur. The Senate will require a majority vote—41 senators—in order to initiate a final impeachment vote of Rousseff, who is accused of using accounting methods to hide the nation’s growing budget deficit. Those in opposition to the vote criticized [WSJ report] the proceeding as little more than an upper-class coup d’etat against the working class.

Brazil’s political establishment has been in turmoil as many powerful politicians have been recently brought to the center of embarrassing corruption investigations. In May Brazil’s Supreme Court suspended [JURIST report] lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha after being suspected of obstructing investigations into his allegedly corrupt activities. That same month local Brazilian media reported [JURIST report] that the country’s top prosecutors had requested an investigation into Rousseff over alleged connected to the Petrobras corruption scandal. In April the Brazil Supreme Court agreed to hear [JURIST report] a corruption case against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which he appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee, arguing his investigation has been riddled with impartiality and abuse of power [JURIST report] by the presiding judge. Although there is widespread opposition against Rousseff, her supporters who have rallied [JURIST report] in her support in the past could spell future turmoil in the country.