Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will attempt to muster support from international counterparts who will attend the signatory ceremony of the United Nations agreement on climate change in New York on Friday, according to a Reuters report. Rousseff faces an impeachment vote that has been approved by the lower house of parliament and the case is now to be taken up by the Senate, who will decide if Rousseff should face trial for flouting budget laws in the country.
Rousseff was earlier planning to skip the event. However, reports said on Thursday that she will be travelling to New York to rally support against what her mentor and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and she call a coup.
"I am the victim of a process that is rooted in injustice, and legal and political fraud," she was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Another Cabinet member, Energy Minister Eduardo Braga quit his office on Wednesday, making it the 9th high-level exit from the Brazil government. Braga was quoted as saying by Reuters that he resigned on the instructions of his party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) — which had been a coalition member with Rousseff and Lula's leftist Workers' Party until last month when it voted to leave the government.
Meanwhile, Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer, who is facing charges in a scandal himself, has been holding meetings in anticipation of taking over the position after the Senate decides to proceed with putting Rousseff on trial on May 12, Reuters reported.
"The focus now is on framing the impeachment as a coup," Paulo Carlos Calmon, a political scientist at the University of BrasÃlia was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal. "They will tap any source of pressure they can [to sway senators], including foreign governments."
