Brazil's interim president Michel Temer was expected today to launch urgent economic rescue measures as he kicked off his new administration a day after his predecessor was suspended to face an impeachment trial.
The former vice president's new business-friendly cabinet held its first meeting Friday morning, just hours after his boss-turned-nemesis, Dilma Rousseff, quit the presidential palace.
The swift transfer of power ended 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers' Party, which helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty with progressive social programs but became mired in corruption scandals, recession and political paralysis.
Now Temer will have to steer clear of the vast graft scandal engulfing Brazil's political and business elites, while working to fix the economy.
"We don't have much time," Temer, a veteran of the center-right PMDB party, said on taking office.
"We must rebuild the foundations of the Brazilian economy and significantly improve the business environment for the private sector so it can get back to its natural role of investing, producing and creating jobs."
Temer announced the start of the cabinet meeting on Twitter. It was to be followed at 1430 GMT by a news conference by incoming Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles, who was expected to unveil urgent measures to drag Latin America's biggest economy out of its worst recession in decades.
But Temer faces many of the same stumbling blocks as his predecessor, plus a few of his own.
Political analysts warned his honeymoon may not even last until he opens the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 5 -- South America's first.
Temer is just about as disliked as the deeply unpopular Rousseff. A recent poll found he would receive just two percent of the vote in a presidential election.
He will also face a deeply hostile left resentful of being sidelined in what it calls a "coup."
And he will have to coexist with Rousseff, who will still be holed up in the presidential residence mounting her defense during an impeachment trial that could drag on for up to six months.
