March •
March 13: Hundreds of thousands of people all over Brazil
protest against corruption and denounce the government of President
Dilma Rousseff. •
March 15: Senator
Delcídio do Amaral, the speaker of the
Worker's Party (PT) signs a plea bargain with
Operation Car Wash prosecutor
Sergio Moro disclosing allegations of corruption against other political figures. •
March 16:
Dilma Rousseff appoints former president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as her chief of staff, a position that would have made him immune from prosecution. A conversation between them was recorded and later leaked by
Sergio Moro, who was rebuked for the disclosure.
April •
April 11: By 38 votes to 27, the commission for the
impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff approves the opinion of the
rapporteur, Deputy
Jovair Arantes (
PTB) of
Goiás. •
April 17:
Brazil's Chamber of Deputies votes 367-137 in favor of beginning impeachment procedures against
President Dilma Rousseff.
May •
May 5: Minister of the
Supreme Federal Court,
Teori Zavascki, removes
Eduardo Cunha from his post as
Federal Deputy and
President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. •
May 10:
The Senate approves the removal of former
Worker's Party Speaker
Delcídio do Amaral for breaching decorum following his admissions in his March 15 plea bargain agreement. •
Vice President of Brazil Michel Temer assumes presidential powers and duties as Acting President of
Brazil. •
Temer announces a
new Cabinet, exclusively made of white males. •
May 24: •
Temer announces plans for
austerity measures. • Temer planning minister
Romero Juca resigns after a recording of him is released, where he appeared to conspire to
obstruct justice. •
May 25: President of the
Supreme Federal Court, Minister
Ricardo Lewandowski, prohibits the process of hidden proceedings in the Court.
June •
June 9: A bus plunges over a
ravine in the state of
São Paulo state, resulting in at least 18 people killed and 28 injured.
July •
July 7: Ousted deputy
Eduardo Cunha resigns as
President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. •
July 14:
Rodrigo Maia is elected
President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. •
July 29: Former
President of Brazil Lula da Silva stands trial on
obstruction of justice charges relating to the
Petrobras scandal.
August •
August 5–
21: The
2016 Summer Olympics are held in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. •
August 10: The
Federal Senate votes 59 to 21 to indict suspended
President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws and put her on trial. •
August 25:
Brazil's
Federal Senate begins the impeachment trial of suspended
President Dilma Rousseff. •
August 31 • The
Senate votes 61 to 20 in favor of
removing Dilma Rousseff from office as
President of Brazil. Vice President
Michel Temer (who has been acting president since May 12) succeeds to the presidency and serves out the remainder of the term, which ends at midnight January 1, 2019. • Economic numbers released showing the
Brazilian economy shrank 3.8% year-on-year in the second quarter.
September •
September 7–
18: The
2016 Summer Paralympics are held in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. •
September 12:
Eduardo Cunha, former
President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, loses his position as
Deputy following a vote of the Chamber, as a result of a series of corruption scandals. •
September 14:
Brazilian prosecutors file corruption charges against former
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his wife,
Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva. Federal judge
Sergio Moro will preside over his case. •
September 22:
Brazilian police arrest former
Finance Minister Guido Mantega as part of an ongoing
probe into corruption. •
September 27: Senator
Gleisi Hoffmann and her husband are indicted as part of the
Operation Car Wash investigation.
October •
October 1:
The South Is My Country a
separatist movement that seeks the independence of Brazil's
South Region, formed by the
states of
Paraná,
Rio Grande do Sul, and
Santa Catarina, holds an unofficial
referendum. A total of 616,917 votes (which represents less than 3% the number of registered voters in these states) were counted according to the organizers of the ballot, 95% voting
yes. •
October 2: Brazilian voters cast ballots in the first round of
nationwide election for mayors and city councils in 5,568 municipalities. •
October 5: Former
president Lula da Silva is charged with corruption linked to
Odebrecht in Angola. •
October 15: The first
elephant sanctuary in
Latin America opens in
Mato Grosso. •
October 17: Clashes between rival gangs in at least two prisons, leave at least 18 people dead. •
October 19: Former
President of the Chamber of Deputies,
Eduardo Cunha is arrested by the
Federal Police in
Operation Car Wash. •
October 20: Prosecutors file homicide charges against 21 employees of
Samarco,
Vale, and
BHP for the
Mariana dam disaster in
Minas Gerais, which killed 19 people and polluted waterways. •
October 30: Second round of the
nationwide election for mayors and city councils with more than 200,000 voters. The
Workers' Party would suffer major losses in at the
mayoral level.
November •
November 16:
Former governor of Rio de Janeiro,
Anthony Garotinho, is arrested by
Federal Police, in
Operation Chequinho. •
November 17: Former
Rio de Janeiro governor Sérgio Cabral is arrested in a corruption probe. •
November 20: Four policemen are killed in
Rio de Janeiro after their helicopter is shot down by a gang. •
November 21: Testimony begins in a corruption case against former
President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. •
November 23: The
Brazilian Development Bank announces plans to repay up to $29 billion in loans to the
Government of Brazil in order to stem a burgeoning deficit. •
November 25:
Secretary of Government Geddel Vieira Lima resigns following allegations that he and
President Michel Temer pressured a fellow
cabinet minister into approving a real estate project. •
November 27:
President Michel Temer,
President of the Senate Renan Calheiros, and
President of the Chamber Rodrigo Maia hold a press conference and announce the "institutional adjustment", which will not sponsor any proposal to amnesty crimes linked to the practice of electoral slush funds. •
November 28: Contractors and suppliers for the
Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games claim they are owed millions in unpaid debts. •
November 29: •
A chartered Avro RJ85 plane carrying 77 people, including the Chapecoense football team, crashes near
Medellín,
Colombia. Rescuers report that at least six survivors have been found in the wreckage. The
2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals are suspended. • Three of
Brazil's leading football clubs –
Flamengo,
Palmeiras and
São Paulo FC – offer to loan players to
Chapecoense, after the team lost the majority of its squad in the
LaMia Airlines Flight 2933 crash. • Protesters in
Brasília hold a violent demonstration against a proposed public spending cap. Police use
tear gas and
rubber bullets in order to disperse the demonstrators. • The
National Institute for Space Research (INPE) says
deforestation has increased 29% this year, on top of a 24% increase the year prior. •
December 5: In
association football,
CONMEBOL officially awards
Chapecoense the
2016 Copa Sudamericana title in the wake of
the plane crash that killed almost the entire team.
Atlético Nacional, who would have faced Chapecoense in the final and campaigned for the Brazilian club to be awarded the title, receives a
fair play award from CONMEBOL. •
December 13: The
Brazilian Senate passes
PEC 55, a constitutional amendment requiring a 20-year spending cap, in a 53-16 vote. •
December 21: The
construction firm
Odebrecht and affiliated
petrochemical company
Braskem plead guilty of violating
American foreign bribery laws in connection with the
Petrobras deal. •
December 29: The Ambassador of Greece to Brazil,
Kyriakos Amiridis, is reported missing while on vacation in
Rio de Janeiro. A homicide team is investigating his disappearance. •
December 31: A body found in a burnt-out vehicle north of
Rio de Janeiro is confirmed to be that of missing
Greek Ambassador
Kyriakos Amiridis. A military police officer who had an affair with the
ambassador's wife confesses to the murder. The wife and a second man are also detained. == Arts and culture ==