Brazil speaker launches impeachment procedure against Dilma Rousseff

Rousseff whho is less than a year into her second term as president, said she was confident of surviving

Brazil's lower house speaker triggered impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, plunging Latin America's biggest country into its deepest crisis in decades.

Speaker Eduardo Cunha's decision taken yesterday, which now must be approved by a special committee to go any further, could see the country's first female leader forced from office just when Brazil is struggling with a corruption scandal and deepening recession.

Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and less than a year into her second term as president, said she was confident of surviving.

"I am convinced and completely sure of the total lack of foundation regarding this petition," she said on television in her first reaction. "There is not one illegal act by me," she said.

The impeachment procedure kicked off with Cunha's acceptance of a petition filed by several lawyers, including a disillusioned founder of Rousseff's Workers' Party. It accuses her of illegally fiddling government accounts to mask budget holes.

The acceptance of the petition was only the first step in what would be a long and complex procedure, punctuated by several legal hurdles, before any final vote over Rousseff's fate.

Experts are divided on her chances. Many call the case against her relatively weak, but also note her deep unpopularity among voters and tepid backing even from deputies and senators in her ruling coalition.

Cunha presented himself as reluctant, saying "I take no pleasure." However, his decision to set the impeachment machine in motion ramped up a bitter and highly personal battle against Rousseff and her party.

The decision to accept the petition, something only the speaker can do, came shortly after Workers' Party members on the lower house ethics committee said they backed removing Cunha from his post because of corruption charges.

He is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes and hiding money in Switzerland as part of a vast corruption scheme uncovered by prosecutors at the Petrobras state oil giant. Brazilian news sites described his move as "vengeance."

While Rousseff and Cunha battle in Congress, Brazil is heading into an ever deeper recession, with rising inflation and employment, a currency one third down over the year, and mounting turmoil over the Petrobras scandal.