A majority of Brazilians favor impeaching President Dilma Rousseff due to the economic slump and a snowballing corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, according to a poll released this week. But despite calls for Rousseff's ouster and recent street demonstrations against her government, opposition leaders have resisted pushing for impeachment and say it is unlikely.
The Obama administration has again invited Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff for a state visit to Washington, a diplomatic breakthrough that both sides hope will lead over time to greater trade between the two biggest economies in the Americas.
Financial experts expect Brazil's economy to shrink 0.83% in 2015, its biggest contraction since 1990, and inflation to climb to 8.12%, its highest level since 2003, according to the results of a Central Bank survey released on Monday.
Brazil's opposition has announced that it will ask the Supreme Federal Court to investigate President Dilma Rousseff for the Petrobras corruption scandal in which her party's treasurer Joao Vacari is also implicated.
Brazil's Dilma Rousseff tried to get ahead of the storm of scandal bearing down on her presidency on Wednesday, unveiling a raft of anti-corruption measures she hopes will appease her critics.
Following a request from Venezuela, the Brazilian government has acted alongside Brazilian companies to guarantee supply of basic products during Venezuela's economic crisis, according to diplomatic sources. The request was made by President Nicolas Maduro in at least two meetings with President Dilma Rousseff, in December 2014 and the day after Rousseff began her second term, on January 2.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledged to hold talks with her growing number of critics and said her embattled government needed to show humility, after the Sunday massive protests erupted across the country.
Brazilian prosecutors have formally charged the treasurer of the ruling Workers' Party and 26 others with corruption linked to state-run Petrobras, in the latest blow to President Dilma Rousseff from the widening scandal.
Brazilian police arrested a former Petrobras executive on Monday, in a broad kickback and money laundering investigation that has rattled some of the nation's biggest companies and political parties.
Over one million demonstrators marched in cities and towns across Brazil to protest a sluggish economy, rising prices and corruption, and some even calling for the impeachment of populist President Dilma Rousseff. The marches on Sunday come as Brazil struggles to overcome economic and political malaise and pick up the pieces of a boom that crumbled once Rousseff took office in 2011.