Brazil's impeachment plot thickened today with speculation rife over whether President Dilma Rousseff will be abandoned by a key ally and the Supreme Court stepping in to put the whole process on hold.
For Rousseff, the court's decision yesterday to freeze the impeachment machine for a week offered badly needed respite as she fights to avoid being ejected one year into her second term at the head of Latin America's biggest country.
And a meeting today with Vice President Michel Temer, who has hinted strongly he will join the push to impeach, appeared to ease tension between the two.
Temer is from the centrist PMDB party, the main coalition partner for Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party, and if he were to walk out on her, she would find it harder to get the one third majority needed in Congress to defeat impeachment.
Although Temer has kept a cryptic silence on his ultimate intentions, he has dropped strong hints that he no longer considers himself bound to his constitutional boss, including sending a letter on Monday to complain about her lack of trust in him.
Citing advisors, the Globo TV network reported that Rousseff and Temer decided that the issue of impeachment would not come up at their future meetings, that Temer would not have to make public statements supporting the government and that he would not work toward her impeachment.
Brazil's first female president, a moderate leftist, is accused of illegal budgeting maneuvers, but says the practices were long accepted by previous governments. She calls the attempt to bring her down a "coup."
The turmoil is stirring passions across the South American country of 204 million, where Rousseff's Workers' Party has been in power since 2003 with the help of the PMDB.
Nationwide opposition rallies are planned Sunday and on Tuesday Rousseff supporters marched in central Rio de Janeiro, which will host the 2016 Olympics.
Political uncertainty is also adding to the economic mess, with GDP down 4.5 percent in the third quarter year-on-year, and the national currency down a third against the dollar this year. A vast corruption scandal centered on state oil giant Petrobras has also put a hole in investor confidence.
In the latest sign of the dismal economy, the government announced year-on-year inflation for November of 10.48 percent -- the highest in 12 years.
With that as a backdrop, rating agency Moody's put Brazil's sovereign rating on review for a cut to junk status Wednesday, saying "worsening governability conditions and increased risk of policy paralysis" was one of the main drivers for the move.
