Brazilian Senate Votes to suspend Dilma Roussef for impeachment Thursday May 12,2016

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (68)was suspended Thursday May 12,2016 to face impeachment, ceding power to her vice-president-turned-enemy Michel Temer in a political earthquake ending 13 years of leftist rule over Latin America's biggest nation.

A nearly 22-hour debate in the Senate closed with an overwhelming 55-22 vote against Brazil's first female president. Pro-impeachment senators broke into applause and posed for selfies and congratulatory group photos in the blue-carpeted, circular chamber.

Only a simple majority of the 81-member Senate had been required to suspend Dilma Rousseff for six months pending judgment on charges that she broke budget accounting laws. 

A trial could now take months, with a two-thirds majority vote eventually needed to force Dilma Rousseff from office altogether.

Within hours, Vice-President Michel Temer, from the center-right PMDB party, was to take over as interim president, drawing the curtain on more than a decade of dominance by Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party.

 Brazil's Impeachment Trial

The Senate has 180 days maximum to conduct hearings, which will be monitored by the chief justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal - the country's top court.
 

- If two-thirds of 81 senators then support impeachment, she will be permanently removed from office. 

- She will have to step down immediately in case of a "yes" vote and will be banned from public office for 8 years.

- The vice president is in charge during her suspension and will complete rest of the presidential tenure until 2018 in case of a "yes" vote.

- If the Senate votes against the impeachment or if no decision is taken within the stipulated 180 days, Rousseff's suspension will end and she will return as president