Safe with 'Oligarchs and Imperialists' in US, Brazil's New President Admits Coup Plot

Proponents of her ouster argued that former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was targeted and ultimately booted from office for budgetary wrongdoing or, ironically, corruption.

But fresh comments by new, unelected president Michel Temer himself back up claims that her impeachment was politically motivated, specifically, that Rousseff wouldn’t enact the austerity-promoting, welfare-slashing economic platform Temer unveiled from his party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), in October when he was vice president.

The Intercept‘s Inacio Vieira reported on the comments Temer made Wednesday speaking to investors in New York City at an event at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas (AS/COA). Here is the key comment, as noted by The Intercept:

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Vieira concludes that the impeachment “was for an agenda of impunity, profit, and power that would never be ratified democratically by the Brazilian voting population at the ballot box, and was thus imposed on them under the guise of upholding the law.”