The vote came after some 20
hours of debate and means Vice President Michel Temer will take over for up to
six months.
Supporters of impeachment blame Brazil's president Ms Rousseff and her Workers' Party for the stalled economy and insist that Mr Temer, whose party has split from the governing coalition, represents the only hope of reviving it.
President Rousseff has been
suspended from office and will face an impeachment trial, following a vote by
Brazil's senate.
The vote was widely
expected and went 55-22 in favour of putting the country's first woman
president on trial.
She is accused of lying to
voters about the level of the country's deficit during her re-election
campaign.
Dilma Rousseff's trial in
the senate will decide if she can carry out in her second term as leader or
whether Mr Temer will continue in power.
Ms Rousseff's supporters
say she has been forced from power in a coup.
Ahead of the vote,
thousands of protesters gathered in support and opposition to Ms Rousseff
outside the Senate in Brasilia, with each group separated by a wall down the
middle of a lawn.
Small but intense clashes
broke out between police and the president's supporters, with police using
pepper spray and protesters throwing firecrackers at officers.
Emergency service workers
took several people away after they fell ill from the clouds of pepper spray.
The impeachment process had
developed into a referendum on Ms Rousseff and her handling of the country over
the past six years.
Brazil is mired in the
worst economic downturn in decades and a sprawling corruption scandal centred
on the state-run Petrobras oil company.
While Ms Rousseff is not
accused of corruption, she is facing the same public anger as many in the
country's elite - 60% of Brazilians support her impeachment.
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