ON Sunday (Monday here in Manila), the Brazilian Congress voted to impeach the country’s embattled President Dilma Rousseff. It took a marathon, five-hour debate for the lower house to arrive at its decision, but in the end it was a rather emphatic one; needing only 342 votes (of a total of 513) to advance the impeachment to the Senate, Rousseff’s opponents mustered 367.

The articles of impeachment will now be passed to Brazil’s upper house, which will vote on whether or not Rousseff should stand trial. If the Senate sends Rousseff to trial, she will be required to step down for up to 180 days while her case is being decided; if she is convicted, of course, she will be removed from office permanently, and could stand trial on criminal charges.

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