Rolandas Paksas, the first European president to be removed from office
The Latin word destitutio came into Spanish as destitution . This is what the act and result of dismissal is called: causing a person to lose his or her position .
The dismissal of an individual, therefore, involves separating him from his job . He who is dismissed stops fulfilling the functions that, until now, he had been assigned.
Some examples
This term, which usually implies a failure of varying severity on the part of the person who loses his job, can be observed in the following three example sentences: «An opposition coalition promotes the dismissal of the governor by considering that the president lacks the necessary ethics to fulfill his role" , "The president of the club analyzes the dismissal of the coach due to poor results" , "I was surprised by the dismissal of the CEO, I did not expect it" .
Impeachment process
The legal tool that allows the removal and disqualification of an authority by appealing to the principle of responsibility of public officials is known as the impeachment process . Called impeachment in the English language, this operation can see a head of state removed by a vote in Congress or Parliament .
The scope of the impeachment process depends on each country. A president, to mention one possibility, can be subjected to an impeachment process if there are strong indications of serious misconduct: if the legislators find him guilty, the president is left out of the government, regardless of whether he has been voted by the population for a certain period in democratic elections.
After being found guilty, the individual may be disqualified from carrying out functions in the same field, beyond losing his or her job. Returning to English-speaking countries, the impeachment process is usually related to a political trial, usually in the Lower House , a body of the legislative branch, whose powers and characteristics depend on the country and its form of government. Then comes the trial of the accused, which takes place in the other body, the Upper House .
In Latin America, on the other hand, the impeachment process is also used and is linked not only to impeachment but also to the judicial procedure known as the residency trial , of West Indies Law at the time when they were under the dominion of Spain. Note that in Spanish, this concept is also called the process of revocation of the mandate, impeachment, trial of immunity, political process, constitutional accusation and motion of censure .
Impeached presidents
In 1992, Brazilian President Fernando Color de Mello was impeached due to a long list of corruption cases against him. Although he submitted his resignation before the end of the process, the investigations continued until a political trial was initiated against him.
Another well-known case was that of the president of Peru Alberto Fujimori , who had a quite particular story. Firstly, he went into exile in Japan while his mandate was still valid, and only abroad did he send a fax announcing his resignation. This was rejected by Congress, and the retaliation was to disqualify him from any public office for a decade.
Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil who was impeached in 2015
Europe's first case occurred in 2004, when impeachment proceedings began against Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas . The reasons were his alleged relationship with the Russian mafia , in particular with a businessman who made a considerable donation to his electoral campaign and received citizenship in exchange.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was subjected to such an impeachment process between 2015 and 2016 for corruption . By vote of the senators and in the midst of great controversy, she was finally removed from her position.