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 The Olympic flame was flown into Brasilia on Tuesday to start a
three-month relay through more than 300 towns and cities that will
end with the opening of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro's Maracaná
stadium on Aug. 5.
A smiling Rousseff waved to crowds as she lit a green cauldron with
the Olympic flame on the ramp of Brasilia's modernistic Planalto
presidential palace.
The president, who is facing impeachment proceedings, will likely be
removed from office before the opening ceremony in Rio.
"Even though we are living through a truly critical period in our
history and the history of our democracy, Brazil will know how to
offer athletes and visitors the best welcome at the Olympics," she
said.
Rousseff said the sports facilities in Rio and the security measures
to protect athletes, tourists and visiting heads of state were
ready.
 Brazil has scrambled to prepare for its second global sports event
in two years in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s and
a massive corruption scandal that shook the political establishment
and fueled demands for Rousseff's removal. Brazil is also fighting
an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus that threatens to keep
some athletes and tourists away from Rio.
The Olympic flame, burning inside four golden lamps, arrived in
Brasilia aboard a LATAM Airlines jetliner that was escorted inside
Brazil's airspace by two Brazilian Air Force F-5 fighters.
The torch left the presidential palace carried by Fabiana Claudino,
who led Brazil's female volleyball team to a gold medal in the 2012
Games.
Hundreds of cheering Brazilian lined the streets at the start of the
relay and an Air Force aerobatics team swooped over central
Brasilia.
Some 12,000 torch bearers will carry the flame across South
America's largest country. In Brasilia, they will include a refugee
from the Syrian civil war, 12-year-old Hanan Daqqah, who arrived in
Brazil with her family in 2015.
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Torch bearer Gerard Moss, a Swiss-Brazilian aviator and
environmentalist, said the Games could help to calm political
tempers.
"What Brazil most needs now is unity, the very symbol of the
Olympics," he said before his turn in the relay. "This is an
opportunity to reduce tensions between our political parties and get
on with the rebuilding our economy."
While torch bearers carried the flame around Brasilia on Tuesday, a
senate committee debated whether to put Rousseff on trial on charges
of breaking budget laws, filed by the lower house of Congress two
weeks ago.
Rousseff is likely to be suspended next week when the Senate votes
on opening the impeachment trial. Vice President Michel Temer would
replace her during a trial of up to 180 days, and guide the country
to elections in 2018 if she is removed from office.
Officials in her government admit her ouster is imminent. Rousseff
said she hoped the Games would bring goodwill to her troubled
country. "We will infect our country with the Olympic spirit," she
said.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassú; Editing by
Jeffrey Benkoe and Alistair Bell)
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