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Most of the lawmakers in Brazil senate said they plan to vote to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Brazil's president. Teachers, you can find the results of that vote at CNN.com.
This does not mean that Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff has been removed from power. If a simple majority of the Senate votes in favor of impeachment proceedings, it means she has to leave the presidential palace for 180 days and defend herself in a trial. Rousseff says she'll fight with every means possible to finish out her term, which is scheduled to end in 2018.
Brazil is the largest and most populated country in South America. It's the continent's largest economy. It's a regional leader. Because of all that, and the challenges it faces as it prepares to host the Summer Olympics, officials around the world are watching.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dilma Rousseff is one of the most unpopular presidents in Brazil's history, possibly in the world. So, what happened after she was reelected in October 2014?
SUBTITLE: Why Brazil wants to impeach Rousseff.
DARLINGTON: Well, to start with, the economy is tanking. Many call it a depression, high unemployment, high inflation, and that means a lot of Brazilians frankly aren't in the mode to put up with political corruption. Investigators had already started to reveal a bribery scandal involving the state-run oil company Petrobras before Rousseff's reelection.
But it snowballed afterwards with accusations against top business leaders and politicians in Rousseff's Workers Party. That meant that while Rousseff herself wasn't implicated, millions of Brazilians have taken to the street and with public opinion in their favor, opposition lawmakers decided to forge ahead with an impeachment motion in Congress, accusing Rousseff not of corruption, but a breaking budget laws to try and hide the sorry state of the economy ahead of reelection.
Now, the impeachment proceedings will drag on for months. All of this however is going to play out on a global stage as Brazil gears up for the Olympic Games in August.
