An International Tribunal Declares the 'Impeachment' of Brazil's Dilma Rousseff an Illegitimate Coup

The grounds for it are baseless, and many of the legislators pushing it are themselves under indictment for serious crimes.

On July 19 and 20, I served as a juror for the International Tribunal for Democracy in Brazil, held in Rio de Janeiro. The tribunal was modeled on the Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal, that put US foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam on trial in the 1960s.

The tribunal was organized by Via Campesina International, the Brazil Popular Front, and the Brazilian Jurists Front for Democracy, and was supported by several academic and grassroots organizations, such as the Landless Workers Movement (MST).

The social movements in Brazil invited me and eight other jurors from various European and Latin American countries to analyze and render a judgment on what they described as a "break in the democratic process" and "a new type of coup."

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