Updated Wed, May 11th 2016 at 10:27 GMT +3Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was only hours from possibly being suspended at the start of an impeachment trial Wednesday in a political crisis paralyzing Latin America's largest country. A onetime Marxist guerrilla tortured under Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1970s, Rousseff therefore faces possibly her final day in power Wednesday. Barring a dramatic twist in events, the Senate was to start debating impeachment at approximately 9:00 am (1200 GMT), with voting expected either late at night or in the early hours of Thursday. Rousseff called her opponents "people (who) can't win the presidency through a popular vote" and claimed they had a "project to dismantle" social gains made by millions of poor during 13 years of Workers' Party rule. Rousseff says the accounting maneuvers were standard practice for many governments in the past and describes the impeachment as a coup mounted by her vice president, Michel Temer, who will take over if she is suspended.

Source: Standard Digital May 11, 2016 02:04 UTC