Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called her vice-president and his allies "traitors" who will be judged harshly by history, vowing to continue to resist an impeachment process she considers tantamount to a coup attempt.
"I am willing to fight to ensure that Brazil is not a country where democracy is broken," she said. "There's nothing more inconvenient than an innocent person."
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Rousseff's remarks came Friday during an interview with editors from several media outlets in New York, during which she dodged questions about whether she should shoulder any blame for the crisis that has rocked Latin America's largest country. She gave no indication that she would consider stepping down, even as Vice President Michel Temer begins assembling his own government to replace hers.
In a speech earlier before the United Nations, she avoided using the word impeachment, let alone coup. With the editors she took a more aggressive tone.
"These people will bear on their foreheads the stamp of coup leaders," she said. "History will give the coup leaders the treatment they deserve."
