In March 2014, a federal judge in Brazil, Sérgio Moro, opened an investigation into the state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, and its relationship with elected officials and contractors. What began as a money-laundering investigation has turned into a sprawling campaign against huge sections of Brazil’s governing establishment.

Operation Lava Jato (“car wash”), as the investigation is known, is now the driving force behind the potential impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the political ruin of the Workers’ Party (PT) she leads. While the PT has not shied away from neoliberal reforms, police terror in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, and massive extractive projects, its fall would open the door to the Brazilian right.

Today, Brazil’s lower house will vote on whether to begin impeachment proceedings. Here, Camila Moreno, a well-known left intellectual in Brazil, speaks with Ulrich Brand about the stakes of the scandal, the role of oil in the Brazilian economy, and what an impeachment could mean for the Left.