Historical Figure
Dilma Rousseff
b. 1947
President of Brazil from 2011 to 2016
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Biography
Dilma Vana Rousseff is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the only woman to have held the Brazilian presidency to date. Since March 2023, she has been the chair of the New Development Bank. She also served in the cabinet of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during his first presidency—first as Minister of Mines and Energy, from 2003 to 2005, then as Chief of Staff from 2005 to 2010.
In Their Own Words (5)
We cannot rest while Brazilians are going hungry, while families are living in the streets, while poor children are abandoned to their own fates and while crack and crack dens rule.
First speech after being elected President, October 31. , 2010
Reality has changed, and we changed with it. However, I never changed sides. I have always been on the side of justice, democracy and social equality.
Interview to Veja magazine, February 24. , 2010
It'a an immense joy to be here today. I have received from millions of male and female Brazilians the most important mission of my life. This fact, beyond myself, is a demonstration of the democratic development of our country because for the first time a woman will rule Brazil.
First speech after being elected President, October 31. , 2010
Any comparison between the military dictatorship and democracy can only come from those who do not value the Brazilian democracy. (...) I am proud to have lied. Lying under torture is not easy. In the face of torture, a person with dignity lies. Enduring torture is very difficult (...) The pain is unbearable; you can not imagine how. I am proud to have lied, because I saved my comrades from the same torture and from death.
Responding to Senator José Agripino Maia - former member of ARENA, ruling party of the military dictatorship - in a Senate hearing, May 7. He suggested that, for having lied when she was interrogated by the political police, she could also have been lying about the leak of data of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's personal expenditures. , 2008
There is no more significant geopolitical consequence today than the growing strategic partnership between China and Russia. Ironically, it is precisely the maximum US pressure on Russia and the containment of China that played a key role in bringing the two countries closer together. The economic sanctions stemming from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and now the war in Ukraine are strengthening a new geopolitical pole, and accelerating changes that would only come slowly.
quoted in "Brazil’s ex-president Dilma Rousseff: US-China conflict is neoliberalism vs. socialism" by Ben Norton, March 23, 2022. , 2022
Timeline
The story of Dilma Rousseff, told in moments.
Captured by the military dictatorship for her involvement in leftist guerrilla groups. She was tortured with electric shocks and beatings over 22 days. She was jailed until 1972.
Served as Chief of Staff under President Lula da Silva, who handpicked her as his successor. She had previously been his Minister of Mines and Energy.
Inaugurated as the 36th President of Brazil, the first woman to hold the office. She won with 56% of the vote.
Impeached and removed from office by the Brazilian Senate on charges of fiscal mismanagement. She called it a parliamentary coup. The vote was 61 to 20.
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