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- <text id=92TT2238>
- <title>
- Oct. 05, 1992: Exit Day for Collor?
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Oct. 05, 1992 LYING:Everybody's Doin' It (Honest)
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 20
- WORLD
- Exit Day for Collor?
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By week's end he may be "suspended" as President of Brazil
- </p>
- <p> Fernando Collor De Mello used every trick in the book to
- delay a vote on his impeachment in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies.
- But last week the President suffered what might have been the
- decisive blow. After a nine-hour televised hearing, Brazil's
- Supreme Court ruled that the chamber had every right to schedule
- the vote for this week and to make it a "nominal" ballot --
- meaning that Deputies will have to declare themselves by name
- for or against. Though it is still possible that Collor will
- pull some last-second surprise, the odds are that the required
- two-thirds of the 503 Deputies will vote, possibly Tuesday, to
- put Collor on trial, and that by week's end Collor will
- effectively be out. Officially he would be "suspended" for up
- to 180 days while the Senate tries him on charges of receiving
- bribes and kickbacks and votes on final removal from office.
- </p>
- <p> Vice President Itamar Franco would be sworn in as
- President with a mandate of up to six months and face the
- daunting tasks of cobbling together a government and reviving
- a paralyzed economy. Nonetheless, Latin America's biggest nation
- would display one sign of a mature democracy: for the first time
- resolving a government crisis by strict constitutional means,
- without military intervention. But it is too early for relief
- that "the system works." Collor might confuse matters by trying
- to exercise some authority as a shadow president while
- suspended. And there is a slim chance that he will beat the
- impeachment vote. Given his massive unpopularity, that could
- trigger chaos in the streets.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-