If Dilma Rousseff is impeached, she will be the 18th elected Latin American president since 1985, excluding Haiti, forced to leave office by means other than the ballot box, says Gretchen Helmke.

A committee of Brazil’s lower house of Congress has voted 38-27 to recommend the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, who faces charges of breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014.