Impeachment not based on Constitution is coup, says attorney-general

If the terms of Constitution are violated, even in the case of a political process, impeachment is a coup, said Attorney-General José Eduardo Cardozo, when making President Dilma Rousseff's defense in the special committee of the Chamber of Deputies that is examining the petition to ouster the head of state.

According to Cardozo, a petition to oust a president must necessarily blatantly contravene the Constitution, report an act for which the president is directly responsible, and report a willful action of the country's representative. If it does not comply with these terms, the petition would be a coup, declared Cardozo.

According to the minister, the crime of responsibility requires an attack on the Constitution and requires the act to be committed by the president. "[It is required] to be an attack on Constitution, an extreme violence, able to shake the state foundations, and needs to be legally classified. Therefore, a whole set of ingredients are required in order to characterize this process. Disproving these assumptions, all impeachment proceedings are unconstitutional, illegal," detailed the attorney-general.

"What is a coup? It is the rupture of the institutional framework, a coup violates a Constitution, a coup denies the rule of law. It does not matter whether it is mounted by weapons, with guns or bayonets, or simply done by tearing the constitution without factual basis—it's a coup," added the minister.

According to Cardozo, there are no military coups currently, but this does not mean that coups are not being mounted. "For that reason, they currently seek rhetorical speeches based on false legal ingredients to justify coups. And this is serious. "

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta