Impeachment threatens Brazil's welfare programs: Rousseff

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended Thursday to face an impeachment trial, warned that the impeachment movement threatened key government welfare programs and recently-discovered deep-sea oil deposits.

The legislature's decision to put her on trial, effectively preventing her from governing for what could be the next six months, targets more than the presidential office, Rousseff said in a televised speech to the nation.

"I want to address the entire population to say that the coup is not just aimed at ousting me," Rousseff said from the presidential headquarters of Planalto in the capital of Brasilia, calling the trial as an attempt to seize power.

"By ousting me, they want to prevent the implementation of the (national) program that was elected by a majority of Brazilians," said Rousseff, who was re-elected to a second term in 2014.

"What is at stake is respect for the independent will of the Brazilian people and the Constitution, and for the achievements of the past 13 years" under the leadership of the Workers' Party, said Rousseff, flanked by her cabinet and political allies.

"What is at stake is Brazil's great discovery, the pre-salt (oil deposits); what is at stake is the future of Brazil," she added.

The Workers' Party spearheaded landmark social programs that were recognized by the United Nations and other international agencies. And it was during her administration that Brazil announced discovery of substantial oil deposits under deep layers of salt below the ocean floor.

Following a special Senate session that began early Wednesday and lasted nearly 22 hours, lawmakers voted to try Rousseff for inflating fiscal accounts in the lead-up to presidential elections that saw her reelected to a second term.

Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing, and vowed to fight to complete her term.

"On behalf of the votes I received, I will fight with all legal means to conclude my mandate on Dec. 31, 2018," said Rousseff, who won the votes of some 54 million Brazilians in the election, but failed to secure a decisive lead over her conservative rival.

Since the bitterly disputed October 2014 contest, the opposition has instigated political instability "to take by force what they failed to win at the polls," she said.

She called on supporters of her government to maintain a united front against what she called the illegitimate interim government that will take her place.

Vice President Michel Temer, who was made acting president Thursday, unveiled a new cabinet and is expected to announce spending cuts and pro-business measures to revert an economic slowdown. Endit