 BRASILIA (Reuters) - Pro-impeachment lawmakers chanted “Dilma Out” in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress on Friday, as it opened a raucous three-day debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff on charges of breaking budget laws. The government lost a last-ditch appeal on Thursday before the Supreme Court to halt the impeachment process, which could bring further instability or even chaos to Latin America’s largest economy after 13 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ Party. Rousseff is fighting to survive a political storm fueled by Brazil’s worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s and a spiraling corruption scandal that has reached her inner circle. Leonardo Picciani, the lower chamber leader for the party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, said 90 percent of the 68 members of his caucus would vote for impeachment. Jurist Miguel Reale Junior speaks during a session to review the request for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment at the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, Brazil April 15, 2016. She faces the growing likelihood of defeat in the lower house vote, which would send her impeachment to the Senate for trial on charges of breaking budget laws. READ MORE: Poetry and poverty on the margins of Brazil 
 
 If the Senate accepts her impeachment, Rousseff would be suspended and replaced by Vice President Michel Temer as soon as early May pending a trial that could last six months.
– The lower chamber of Brazil's Congress has begun debate on whether to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, with the crucial vote slated for Sunday, the AP reports. The government had carried out an unsuccessful bid before the country's Supreme Court to try to halt the process, but that appeal was lost, Reuters notes. The atmosphere in the lower Chamber of Deputies was electric at the start of Friday's session, with some congressmen chanting "Dilma Out!" before proceedings began. Lawmakers backing impeachment allege Rousseff's administration violated fiscal rules. They say the government used sleight-of-hand accounting in a bid to shore up public support. However, many of those pushing for impeachment face grave accusations of corruption themselves. Rousseff's defenders insist she did nothing illegal and say similar accounting techniques were used by previous presidents. The country's attorney general called the whole procedure "Kafka-esque" and said it meant Rousseff wouldn't be able to fully defend herself, Al Jazeera reports. If 342 of the lower house's 513 legislators vote in favor of impeachment, the process moves to the Senate, which would decide whether to open a trial. If the Senate moves to impeach Rousseff, she would be swapped out with Brazil's vice president, Michel Temer, as soon as May since she would be suspended from office for up to 180 days during the trial.