Brasilia, Brazil: Senators on Wednesday fired Dilma Rousseff as Brazil's president at an impeachment trial, ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America's biggest country.
Here is a summary of the recent months of political drama that led to this point:
2014 re-election
On October 26, 2014, Rousseff was narrowly re-elected Brazil's president, continuing the poverty-fighting leftist policies of her more popular predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
She was later accused of fiddling government accounts to mask fiscal problems ahead of her reelection. Rousseff denies the allegation, saying previous administrations did the same.
2015 recession
In June 2015, Brazil tipped into its worst recession in decades. The economy shrank 3.8 percent, and is projected to contract this year by a similar amount.
Rousseff's popularity tumbled. On December 2, 2015, Congress launched the impeachment process.
"She will be seen as someone who made many mistakes and did not know how to negotiate with Congress, who is partly responsible for what happened to the economy," said Michael Mohallem, a political analyst at Rio de Janeiro's Getulio Vargas Foundation university.
The ire of March
On March 4, 2016, Lula was detained by prosecutors probing a corruption scandal involving state oil company Petrobras. He has been charged with corruption and obstruction of justice in two separate probes linked to the firm.
On March 29, Rousseff's main coalition partner, the centrist PMDB -- under her vice-president Michel Temer -- quit the government, triggering an exodus by four other parties.
Despite Rousseff's own mistakes, "the impeachment process itself will be seen as having been used for the benefit of one political group, to get Michel Temer and the PMDB to power," said Mohallem.
Rousseff suspended
On May 12, the Senate voted to suspend Rousseff from office to face an impeachment trial. Temer became interim president.
He named a pro-business government. Several of its members later resigned after being implicated in the Petrobras affair.
Trial and judgment
On August 9, as Brazil hosted the Olympic Games, the Senate voted to formally open an impeachment trial. It started on August 25.
On August 29, Rousseff made a stern defense in person, urging senators to reject a "coup" and uphold democracy.
On August 31, after days of emotional debate, a majority of senators voted to remove her from office for good.
Temer was sworn in shortly thereafter.
