Managua, Nicaragua: A grouping of leftwing Latin America political parties on Wednesday rejected the impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, calling it an ‘institutional coup.’

The Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America (COPPAL) issued a statement in which it ‘rejected any destabilizing intent to undermine democracy in Brazil.’

The text was read in Nicaragua’s capital Managua by COPPAL’s vice president, Francisco Rosales.

The organization, which groups 60 leftist parties including Rousseff’s Workers Party, warned that the impeachment process—the ‘institutional coup’—’is something that affects the whole region.’

It drew parallels with a 2009 coup in Honduras that ousted president Manuel Zelaya and a 2012 impeachment in Paraguay of its president, Fernando Lugo.

Brazil’s Congress over the weekend voted overwhelmingly in favor of impeaching Rousseff on the grounds she improperly used loans from state banks to paper over a budget gap, something she denies is grounds for impeachment.

The process has now moved to Brazil’s senate, which is likely to hold a vote by mid-May on whether or not it approves impeachment.

Rousseff and her predecessor and mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have repeatedly called the push for impeachment a ‘coup,’ claiming opponents and former allies were seizing on accusations not serious enough to warrant ousting an elected leader.

If impeachment succeeds, it would further roll back a ‘pink tide’ of leftist leaders across Latin America who had taken power in the last decade or so only to lose it in recent years.

Argentina, Paraguay, Guatemala and Honduras have all swung to the right in the last few years in presidential elections.