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Brazilian president says he was unaware of protest against his UN speech

Xinhua, September 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Wednesday that he didn't notice a protest by several Latin American representatives during his speech at the United Nations.

While Temer made a speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, representatives of Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua and Costa Rica left the room and only returned after he stopped speaking.

"I confess I did not even notice," as there are 193 countries in the UN, Temer said during a press conference, adding that "the relations are not between people, they are institutional relations, from state to state, from government to government."

The retreat of Brazil's neighbors was interpreted as a protest against the impeachment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, which many considered illegal due to a lack of concrete evidence. They say if Rousseff was wrongly forced to step down, a Temer administration would be unjustifiable.

In response, Temer defended the legitimacy of his government, saying that one only needs to "read the Brazilian constitution" to see that he took office legally.

On Aug. 31, the Brazilian Senate approved Rousseff's impeachment, who was tried for fiscal irregularities such as delaying payments to public banks and taking out new loans without congressional approval, in violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

A few short hours later, Rousseff's former vice-president and political ally-turned-enemy, Temer, was sworn in as her successor. Endi