MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rousseff will claim before UN she is victim of a “coup d'état without weapons”

Rousseff aides said the populist leader would attend a U.N. event Friday in New York, where she will denounce as illegal the attempt to impeach her.

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will travel to New York in a bid to rally international support against her impeachment, leaving behind a Cabinet paralyzed by political crisis as another minister defected Wednesday.

Rousseff aides said the populist leader would attend a U.N. event Friday in New York, where she will denounce as illegal the attempt to impeach her. She has called the process, which could see her forced from office within weeks, a “coup d'état without weapons.”

Energy Minister Eduardo Braga said he was quitting her government following orders from his PMDB party, Rousseff's main coalition partner until it abandoned her last month to back her ouster. Rousseff's impeachment would end 13 years of rule by the populist Workers' Party.

Nine ministers in Rousseff's 31-member cabinet have now resigned, leaving important portfolios without politically appointed heads, including the Tourism and Sports ministries only four months before Brazil hosts the Olympic Games. Rousseff may not even be president by the time the games start.

Vice President Michel Temer, who would take over if Rousseff is impeached, met with advisers in Sao Paulo to study plans for a new government that, aides said, would move quickly to restore economic confidence and growth.

The crisis has paralyzed Brazil's ability to revive the economy from its worst recession in decades in the midst of a massive corruption scandal involving state-run oil firm Petrobras.

Murilo Portugal, the head of Brazil's most powerful banking industry lobby, has emerged as a strong candidate to become finance minister if Temer takes power, a source said on Wednesday.

Rousseff lost a crucial vote in the lower house of Congress on Sunday and now faces impeachment by the Senate on charges of breaking budget laws. With the prospect of the Senate suspending her in three weeks, two aides said Rousseff would use her visit to New York to defend herself in interviews with international media.

Rousseff has accused vice president Temer, leader of the PMDB party, of plotting against her. During her trip to New York, Temer will temporarily assume the presidency, an irony not lost on his aides.

“This is a rather unusual coup,” said Temer's spokesman, Marcio de Freitas. “She is going to the U.N. to denounce a coup but handing over power during her trip to the man she says is trying to overthrow her.”

Her opponents have also traveled to the United States to defend the impeachment. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Aloysio Nunes, of the opposition PSDB party, was in Washington this week to explain to U.S. government officials why the process is constitutional.