Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff ( Belo Horizonte, December 14, 1947), known as Dilma Rousseff, is an economist and political Brazilian who held the presidency of his country from 1 January 2011 until 31 August 2016 on 12 May 2016.
The Senate opened an impeachment process against him, so it was since then and until the end of the process, suspended from his duties as Head of State and government.
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Dilma Rousseff in 2011.
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| President of the Federative Republic of Brazil | ||
| January 1, 2011 - August 31, 2016 | ||
| Vice president | Michel Temer (2011-2016) | |
| Predecessor | Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva | |
| Successor | Michel Temer | |
Head of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency | ||
| June 21, 2005 - November 21, 2010 | ||
| President | Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva | |
| Predecessor | Jose Dirceu | |
| Successor | Erenice Alves Guerra | |
Minister of the Civil House of Brazil | ||
| June 21, 2005 - November 21, 2010 | ||
| President | Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva | |
| Predecessor | Jose Dirceu | |
| Successor | Erenice Alves Guerra | |
Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil | ||
| January 1, 2003 - June 21, 2005 | ||
| President | Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva | |
| Predecessor | Francisco Luiz Sibut Gomide | |
| Successor | Silas rondeau | |
| Personal information | ||
| Birth name | Dilma Vana Rousseff | |
| Birth | As of December 14 as 1947 (72 years) Belo Horizonte, Brazil | |
| Home | Porto Alegre | |
| nationality | Brazilian | |
| Mother tongue | Portuguese | |
| Religion | Catholicism | |
| Political party | POLOP (1961-1967) COLINA (1961-1967) VAR Palmares (1969-1972) Democratic Labor Party (1982-2001) Workers Party (2001 onwards) | |
| Family | ||
| Parents | Pedro Rousseff Dilma Jane Coimbra Silva | |
| Spouse | Cláudio Galeno de Magalhães Linhares (1967-1969) Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo (1969-2000) | |
| Sons | Paula Araújo Rousseff de Covolo | |
| Education | ||
| Education | An economist from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul | |
| Educated in | Federal University of Minas Gerais The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul | |
| Professional information | ||
| Occupation | Economist and Politics | |
| Member of | Puebla Group | |
| Firm |  | |
| Web | ||
| Website | ||
The daughter of a Brazilian mother and a Bulgarian father, Dilma grew up in an upper-middle-class family and was educated in a public school. While I was studying in high school, the 1964 Coup d'état took place. From that moment he began to be a member of the military in the resistance movement against the military dictatorship.
In 1964, as a high school student, he began to serve politically in the Political Revolutionary Marxist Organization of Workers (POLOP), Politica Operária (Worker Policy, in Spanish). Later he was part of the guerrilla organization COLINA, later reorganized as VAR Palmares, which was one of the largest armed groups formed against the military regime. Arrested in 1970, a military court tortured her and later sentenced her, remaining in prison for three years.
Once free, he settled in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, where he studied economics, receiving a degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in 1977. With the gradual opening towards democracy, which opened the military dictatorship In the 1980s, Dilma began her political activity in the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), led by Leonel Brizola at the national level, becoming the state secretary of Mines and Energy in the 1990s.
In 2001 she broke with the PDT to join the Workers' Party (PT), led at the national level by Lula da Silva who, upon assuming the presidency in 2002, appointed her Minister of Mines and Energy. After the scandal of the monthly payments ( mensalão ) the Chief of the Cabinet José Dirceu resigned and was replaced by Rousseff as Chief of the Cabinet. She resigned from that position on March 31, 2010, to run for the presidency of Brazil, being elected in the second round with 56% of the votes.
She took office on January 1, 2011, being the first woman to hold the position of a top political leader in Brazil. Following in the footsteps of Lidia Geiler Tejada (1979), Michelle Bachelet (2006) and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007), she has been the fourth woman elected president in South America .
His government plan basically follows the same steps as its predecessor in international, economic, and social areas, directing its action towards the objective of ending extreme poverty. Faced with the so-called Currency War promoted by the European Union and the United States as a mechanism to transfer the crisis unleashed in 2008, it promoted a policy of shielding and autonomy, which had the support of Mercosur and the five countries of the BRICS Group. Faced with complaints and proceedings for corruption during his government, his chief of staff and the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Labor, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Tourism, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Ports, the Minister of Mines and the Minister of Sports were forced to resign. he was in charge of organizing the 2014 FIFA World Cup, held during his tenure. It was dismissed by the Brazilian Senate on 31 of August of 2016, convicted of the crime of responsibility in the makeup of the accounts tax and the signing of economic decrees without approval by the Brazilian Congress by 61 votes to 20. Michel Temer took over as president in his replacement.
Biography of Dilma Rousseff
Family, childhood and early years
Dilma is the daughter of the lawyer and small businessman Bulgarian naturalized Brazilian Pedro I Rousseff and the housewife Dilma Jane Silva Coimbra.
His father, born in the town of Gabrovo in 1900, was distantly related to the writer Ran Bosilek, he maintained a close friendship with the Bulgarian poet Elisaveta Bagriana, and was a member of the Communist Party of Bulgaria, after the Russian Revolution of 1917. and frequented literary circles in the 1920s.
In 1929 he had to leave Bulgaria due to political persecution, leaving his wife, Evdokia Yankova, pregnant in her homeland with their son Luben, who died in 2007.
Dilma's father went first to France and then to Buenos Aires, to settle permanently in São Paulo, where he prospered. On a trip to Uberaba, he met Dilma Jane Silva Coimbra, a young Fluminense of New Friborg, professor, raised within the state of Minas Gerais, where his parents were farmers. When they married, they settled in Belo Horizonte, where they had three children: Igor, Dilma Vana, and Zana Lucía (who died in 1976).
Pedro Rousseff worked for the Mannesmann steel company, in addition to working in the construction and sale of real estate. Prompted by her father, Dilma acquired a taste for reading. Died in 1962, Pedro Roussef left an inheritance worth about fifteen buildings.
Between 1952 and 1954, Dilma attended preschool at the Izabela Hendrix school and from 1955 began elementary school at the Our Lady of Zion College, in Belo Horizonte.
In 1964 he took an exam to enter the Central State College (current Governor Milton Campos State School), a school that at that time had an active student movement, especially since the 1964 Coup d'état. She has said that it was in this school that her political commitment began.
That same year of 1964, when he was 17 years old, he began to act as a rank-and-file militant of the Marxist Revolutionary Organization Workers' Politics(POLOP), a Marxist group founded in 1961, which disagreed with the line of the Brazilian Socialist Party and which It had among its founder's several intellectuals who were to stand out in the following years, such as Theotonio dos Santos, Ruy Mauro Marini, Luiz Alberto de Vianna Moniz Bandeira, and Paul Singer. Dilma was active there alongside José Aníbal, who would later become one of the main leaders of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).
In 1967 he gave the entrance exam to the Faculty of Economic Sciences (FACE) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). That same year the POLOP was divided due to the question of "the way to socialism ": while one sector proposed the convening of a constituent assembly, another sector argued that armed struggle was necessary. Dilma aligned herself with the second group, which gave rise to the National Liberation Command (COLINA).
For Apolo Heringer, who was the leader of COLINA in 1968 and had been Dilma's teacher in high school, the young woman opted for armed struggle after reading Revolution in the Revolution, byRégis Debray, the first book by the French intellectual who spread the Cuban Revolution and Guevarism worldwide.
At that time, he met Claudio Galeno de Magalhães Linhares, five years older, who also defended the armed struggle in the urban environment to fight for the equality of civilians and soldiers who carry weapons while working. Galeno had joined POLOP in 1962 and had served in the army, acting in the Mariners' Revolt of March 25, 1964, being arrested and imprisoned on the Isla de las Cobras Coralejas.
In 1967 they married after a year of dating.
According to testimonies from her fellow activists, Dilma was distinguished by her leadership ability, imposing herself in a culture in which men were used to the ruling. He did not participate directly in armed actions, because his militancy was oriented towards public action, such as contacts with the unions, the teaching of Marxism courses and the management of the newspaper O Piquete. Not with standing that, he learned to handle weapons and to confront the police.
At the beginning of 1969, the COLINA in Minas Gerais was limited to a few dozen militants, with little money and few weapons. Their actions had been limited to four bank robberies, some car thefts, and two bombings, which did not cause casualties.
On January 14, the members of COLINA met to discuss how to free the members who had been detained after the last bank robbery and were caught by the police. The group repulsed the assault using a machine gun, killing two policemen. Dilma and Galeno could not return to the apartment in which they lived, already known to the police, and after a few months of sleeping each night in a different place, the organization arranged for them to move to Rio de Janeiro. Dilma was 21 years old at the time and had completed the second year of her economics degree. l The number of "Minas Gerais" militants from COLINA refugees in Rio de Janeiro (including Fernando Pimentel, who would be Dilma's minister during her presidency) exceeded the organization's infrastructure capacity.
Dilma and Galeno settled for a time in the house of one of her aunts. Then they stayed in a small hotel and an apartment until Galeno was sent to Porto Alegre. Dilma remained in Rio, where she carried out support tasks, such as transporting weapons and money. Then he met the gaucho lawyer Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo, then 31 years old, with whom he would live for almost 30 years.
Araújo was the son of a renowned labor lawyer. He had traveled through Latin America (including meeting Fidel Castro and Che Guevara ) and had been imprisoned for a few months in 1964.
In 1968 he entered the armed struggle with a group that had separated from the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), from which he was the boss. Araújo was negotiating the merger of his group with the COLINA and the Vanguardia Popular Revolucionaria (VPR), led by Carlos Lamarca. Dilma participated in some meetings on the merger, which ended up being formalized in two conferences held in Mongaguá, thus originating Vanguardia Armada Revolucionaria Palmares (VAR-Palmares).
In the VAR-Palmares
Carlos Araújo was chosen to integrate the leadership of six members of the VAR-Palmares, which defined itself as "a political-military organization of a partisan, Marxist-Leninist character, which intends to fulfill all the tasks of the revolutionary war and construction of the Party of the Working Class, with the aim of taking power and building socialism. "
According to the repressor Mauricio Lópes Lima, a member of the Operation Bandeirante (Oban) team, a structure that made up the intelligence service of the Brazilian Armed Forces, Dilma was an important leader of the VAR-Palmares, in which she used various nom de guerre, like Estela, Luisa, María Lucía, Marina, Patricia, and Wanda. Her colleagues affirm that Dilma was in charge of communication between the VAR-Palmares national command and the regional commands.
Between August and September 1969, the VAR-Palmares divided into two groups: the "militarists", focused on the armed struggle and led by Lamarca, and the "baristas", who proposed to orient themselves to mass work. Dilma was placed with the second group.
After the division, Dilma was sent to São Paulo, where she was in charge of depositing the weapons that her group kept in a safe place. To this end, she and her friend María Celeste Martins (decades later, her advisor at the Cabinet Headquarters ) settled in a pension in the eastern part of São Paulo, hiding the arsenal under the bed.
Torture and prison
Among the captured VAR-Palmares militants was José Olavo Leite Ribeiro, who met three times a week with Dilma, who was 22 years old at the time. According to Ribeiro's account, after being tortured for a day, he revealed that he had to meet a colleague in a bar on Rúa Augusta, one of the main streets of San Pablo.
On January 16, 1970, Ribeiro led his captors to the bar, which they captured on contact, and as they were preparing to leave the premises, Dilma arrived. She sensed that something was wrong and tried to leave, but the police became suspicious and when they checked her they discovered that she was armed.
Dilma was taken to the facilities of Operation Bandeirante (Oban), to the same place where five years later the journalist Vladimir Herzog would be assassinated. She was tortured for twenty-two days, being constantly beaten and subjected to the torture known in Brazil as a pau-de-arara and dragon chair, in which she was given electric shocks.
Dilma would later denounce the torture suffered, providing the names of the soldiers who participated, such as the army captain Benoni de Arruda Albernaz, also denounced by other people tortured during the dictatorship, but those responsible were not prosecuted.
Dilma was sentenced by a military court to six years in prison and eighteen years of disqualification of her political rights. After serving three years, the Superior Military Court reduced the sentence to two years and one month. Carlos Araújo was arrested on August 12, 1970, and would also be sentenced, spending almost four years in prison.
In December 2006, the Special Commission for Reparation of the Secretariat of Human Rights of the state of Rio de Janeiro approved the request for compensation made by Dilma Rousseff and eighteen other people, imprisoned and tortured in police stations in the 1970s.
In 2010, during the electoral campaign in which Dilma was elected president of Brazil, Red Globo disseminated secret documents of the military repression in which they described Dilma as a "Joan of Arc of the guerrilla" or the "Pope of subversion ".
Residence in Porto Alegre
Dilma was released at the end of 1972, when she was 25 years old, weighing 57 kg, ten kilos less than her normal weight and with thyroid dysfunction. After spending a few months with his family in Minas Gerais, to recover, and with an aunt in São Paulo, he moved to Porto Alegre, where Carlos Araújo was serving his sentence. She lived in the house of her in-laws, from where the prison could be seen. Dilma visited him frequently, bringing him newspapers and political books, simulated as adventure books.
In June 1974, Araújo's father, the prestigious lawyer Afrânio Araújo, passed away. A week later, Dilma's husband was released.
His first paid activity after leaving prison was at the Fundación de Economía y Estadística (FEE), dependent on the government of Rio Grande do Sul.
In 1975 Dilma became pregnant, and her only daughter, Paula Rousseff Araújo, was born in March 1976.
Dilma also resumed her political militancy, now within the law, at the Institute of Political and Social Studies (IEPES), linked to the then only legalized opposition political party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) . Even without joining the party, Dilma organized debates at the institute, receiving lecturers such as Francisco de Oliveira, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Francisco Wofford.
In 1976 Araújo and Dilma worked in the campaign for the mayor of Glênio Peres, for the MDB. Péres was elected but the dictatorship annulled the election on the grounds that he had denounced torture in a speech.
In November 1977, the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo denounced the alleged infiltration of the State by 97 "subversives" (sic), mentioning Dilma by name and surname. The report had been prepared by the then Minister of the Army, General Sylvio Frota. Dilma, described as a militant of the VAR-Palmares and of the COLINA and "tamed with the subversive" Carlos Araújo, was exonerated from the FEE. Later she would be amnesty and she would return to the organization as its president.
Academic training
Because Dilma had been convicted of "subversion", Decree-Law No. 477 of February 26, 1969, was applied to her and she was expelled from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. For this reason, he had to take an exam to enter the Economics career at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, graduating in 1977.
Starting in 1978, Dilma began to attend the State University of Campinas, with the intention of pursuing master's degrees in Economic Theory and Law and a doctorate in Monetary and Financial Economics. Over the course of several years, she would comply with the courses but did not get to present the final theses. It is said that Dilma is still trying.
At that time, he began to participate in a discussion group in São Paulo with other former members of the VAR-Palmares, including Rui Falcão, Antonio Roberto Espinosa, his fellow prisoner, and, eventually, Carlos Araújo. With quarterly meetings, the group lasted for about two years, reading works by Marx, Poulantzas, and Althusser, discussing what would be the best time to resume political activity.
Political Career of Dilma Rousseff
With the coming to power of General João Baptista Figueiredo (1979-1985), the Brazilian military dictatorship ended the mandatory bipartisan mechanism and established a controlled mechanism that allowed multipartyism. Dilma and Araújo then joined the task undertaken by Leonel Brizola to re-found the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), the historic popular party created by Getulio Vargas in the 1940s. But because the party's acronym was finally in the hands of Ivete Vargas's group, Brizola and their followers founded the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).
In the 1982 elections, in which Araújo was included in the list of state deputies of the PDT for the Rio Grande do Sul, he was elected, as in 1986 and 1990. Simultaneously Dilma began to work as an advisor to the PDT bench in the state legislature.
In those years, Dilma and Araújo also actively participated in the Directors movement , which united the entire opposition political arc to demand that the election of the president in 1985 be carried out through direct elections. The movement did not get the military dictatorship to agree to the claim, but it divided the official party of the dictatorship (ARENA) and led to the election of the first civilian president since the coup: Tancredo Neves. Neves passed away before taking office and in his place was the vice president, also a civilian, José Sarney (1985-1990). Argentina had recovered democracy the previous year and the agreements between Sarney and the Argentine democratic president Raúl Alfonsín would lead to the creation of Mercosur and the demilitarization of both countries. By the 1990s, all South American countries would have restored democracy.
Municipal Secretary of Finance
In 1985 Araújo and Dilma were part of the group closest to Alceu Collares when he disputed the Porto Alegre city hall. A large part of the campaign and the government program was prepared in the couple's house. Collares won the election and appointed Dilma Secretary of Finance for the municipality, her first executive position.
The following year, Dilma was an advisor to Aldo Pinto in his campaign to be governor. Because the candidate for lieutenant governor in the formula was Nelson Marchezan, one of the civilians who had stood out for their support of the military dictatorship, some voices have claimed that alliance from Dilma. Dilma said for her part that "Marchezan was one of the leaders of the dictatorship, but he was never an" enragé ". Marchezan's wing was the wing of the small radicalized property. And he was an ethical type."
Dilma remained at the head of the Secretariat until 1988, when he left to dedicate himself to the Araújo campaign, who presented himself as the PDT candidate for the Porto Alegre mayor's office, being defeated by the PT Olívio Dutra. The defeat of Araújo removed the PDT from executive positions.
In 1989 Dilma was appointed general director of the Porto Alegre Municipal Chamber, but soon after she was asked to resign.
State Secretariat of Energy, Mines, and Communications (from PDT to PT)
In 1990 the PDT returned to state power by winning the election for governor Alceu Collares (1990-1994), and appointed Dilma as president of the Foundation for Economics and Statistics (FEE), from which she had been exonerated a decade ago for " subversive ".
In 1992 Araújo returned to appear as the candidate of the PDT for the administration of Porto Alegre, losing this time against the PT Tarso Genro. At the end of 1993, Governor Collares appointed Dilma as Secretary of State for Energy, Mines, and Communications. She remained in office for a year and resigned coinciding with the couple's break with Araújo, from whom she would remain separated for two years. Dilma then left political office and returned to the Foundation for Economics and Statistics (FEE), being appointed editor of the journal Economic Indicators.
In the 1998 elections, the PT and the PDT agreed to an alliance for the second round that gave the victory to the PT Olívio Dutra (1998-2002). As part of the PT-PDT agreement, Dilma was again appointed in charge of the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Dutra refers to that designation:
But Brizola, the PDT's national leader, disagreed with maintaining the alliance with the PT and ordered party members who belonged to Dutra's state government to resign from their posts. Brizola's decision to break the alliance with the PT, in turn, led Dilma to express his disagreement with the "neol detectives and right-wing alliances" and break with the PDT, remaining in his position in the Dutra government.
In 2000, Dilma supported the candidacy of Tarso Genro (PT), for the Porto Alegre city hall, facing Collares, from the PDT, her former boss. Genro finally beat Collares in the second round and Dilma joined the PT. Brizola, for his part, accused her of being a traitor and of "selling herself for a plate of lentils." the same year, Dilma definitively separated from Araújo.
During his tenure at the Dutra government's Ministry of Mines and Energy, the power sector's service capacity rose 46%, through a program of emergency works for which he brought together state and private companies.
In January 1999, Dilma traveled to Brasilia and alerted the national authorities of the electricity sector that, without investments in the generation and transmission of energy, the blackouts that the Rio Grande do Sul had to face at the beginning of its administration would occur in the rest of the country. country.
In the so-called "blackout crisis" at the end of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government, the three southern states were not affected.
National Minister of Mines and Energy
For the 2002 presidential elections, the PT once again presented Lula's candidacy, after having been defeated three times in a row, in 1989, 1994 and 1998. After a decade of globalization and drastic neoliberal reforms, Brazil found itself in a situation difficult socio-economic situation, aggravated by the chaotic crisis in Argentina, its main partner in Mercosur.
One of the crucial areas at that time was energy, after the huge blackouts that occurred on July 1, 2001, and September 27, 2002 - just 30 days before the presidential elections - which led to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to obligatorily reduce electricity consumption by 20%.
The energy area of Lula's team was coordinated by the prestigious physicist and nuclear engineer Luiz Pinguelli Rosa, from Argentina. The PT's official position on energy was centered on the criticism of the privatization process that had taken place in the previous decade and which had resulted in the almost absolute absence of investment. Dilma was invited by Pinguelli to participate in the group in June 2001. As Minister of Energy of the State of Rio Grande does Sul, Dilma had been characterized by pragmatic management, linking private companies with the state sector, which gave her good results and allowed her to negotiate with the national government that the reduction of 20 % in energy consumption, will not be applied in the Rio Grande do Sul.
On October 27, 2002, Lula won the presidential elections, defeating José Serra of the PSDB. Once elected, Lula surprised by appointing Dilma as Minister of Mines and Energy, a portfolio that was responsible for assuming the electricity crisis in the country and managing the strategic company Petrobras.
Lula's decision would have been influenced by the sympathy that the designated Minister of Economy Antonio Palocci felt for Dilma, evaluating that she could also guarantee a better relationship with the private sector than Pinguelli.
Dilma had also supported the Letter to Brazilians, in which Lula promised to respect national and international contracts. Olívio Dutra said that he was also consulted by Lula and that he had praised the technical merits of his Secretary of Mines and Energy.
Once assumed as a minister, Dilma became politically close to José Dirceu, Lula's first Chief of Cabinet. Her management in the ministry was characterized by respecting the contracts signed in the previous administration, as well as by the efforts to avoid a new blackout and to implement a new electricity model, based on solid public policies, which would allow consolidating the regulatory and. In this way, Dilma departed in part from the strict statist model that Luiz Pinguelli - appointed president of Eletrobras - and Ildo Sauer wanted.
Dilma appointed Mauricio Tolmasquim as Executive Secretary of the ministry, and when she left office to take over as cabinet chief, Tolmasquim was appointed as successor minister.
One of Dilma's first decisions upon assuming the ministry was to implement a national purchasing policy by Petrobras, in order to develop the Brazilian industry and create new jobs.
We cannot let a trillion dollar work not be done in the country.
Thus, the tenders called in 2003 for the Petrobras oil platforms were the first works in Brazil in which a minimum national content was required. Dilma defended country capability of producing ships and platforms, stating that nationalization, which was at the take between 15% and 18%, would rise to over 60%.
With this policy, the Brazilian shipbuilding industry became employed 40,000 workers in 2008, when the mid-1990s it employed only 500, placings it as the sixth-largest shipbuilding industry in the world in 2009.
Following the line of work of her work in the Rio Grande do Sul, Dilma promoted the association of public and private investments to build hydroelectric plants, thermal power plants, and wind farms throughout the country.
In 2004, it launched the Incentive Program for Alternative Sources of Electric Power (PROINFA), in order to diversify the Brazilian energy matrix.
In December 2004, Rousseff launched the National Program for the Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB). The objective was to promote the production of fuels from biomass, for use by automobiles. They were bioethanol, an alternative to naphtha, produced from sugar cane, and biodiesel, synthesized from oilseeds such as soybeans and castor, an alternative to diesel.
Light for All
Dilma proposed to accelerate the goals of universalization of access to electricity, which had a deadline of 2015 so that 1.4 million rural households would receive electricity before 2006. She explained that universalization was a goal of social inclusion, having to be part of programs such as Fome Zero ( Zero Hunger) and that not only should not generate financial return but should be heavily subsidized by the State.
The program was launched in November 2003, under the name "Luz Para Todos", giving priority to regions with a low human development index and to families with incomes of up to three times the minimum wage. The goal of the program was to connect two million households through 2008.
In April 2008, the government expanded the program to reach 1.17 million households that had not been left out of the initial program.
In October 2008, Dilma announced that 100,000 families remained to reach the goal of the program, which would be served in 2009. The Northeast Region of Brazil concentrated 49% of the program's connections, making that region surpass for the first time to the South in electricity consumption.
Chief of Cabinet
As a consequence of the scandal of monthly payments , José Dirceu, Chief of Staff and right hand of Lula, was forced to resign on June 16, 2005.
In 2012 Dirceu would be sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison for this crime.
At a difficult time in his government and the decline in popularity due to corruption scandals, Lula surprised again by appointing Dilma as Chief of Staff ( Minister-Chef da Casa Civil ). Dilma thus became the first woman in the history of Brazil to reach a position higher than the ministerial one.
Upon taking over as Chief of Staff, Dilma left her position at the head of the Eletrobras Board of Directors but kept the presidency of the Petrobras Board of Directors.
Gilberto Carvalho, the president's private secretary, said Dilma caught Lula's attention for her courage to face difficult situations and for her technical ability. It was a bold decision by Lula because it implied appointing to a political position related to the presidential succession, a relatively new person in the PT, and without the ambition to succeed him.
The mother of the PAC
On October 29, 2006, Lula won the presidential elections again in the second round, to begin his second term on January 1 the following. Lula would then gradually begin to give more and more public relevance to Dilma's action as Chief of the Cabinet. The first step was the announcement on January 22, 2007, with all the ministers, the governors of 22 states, and the leaders of a dozen parties, of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), a program encompassing several policies and areas. Coordinated ministerial, with strong social content, a term of four years, and an investment of 504,000 million reais (about 250 million dollars).
The PAC gave Dilma the relevance Lula was looking for and a strong identification with the most neglected sectors. A little less than a year after the launch of the PAC, Lula presented her publicly in one of the main favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as "the mother of the PAC", a term that would become general.
On November 8, 2007, as president of the Board of Directors of Petrobras, she publicly announced the discovery of the gigantic high-quality oil field in the Santos underwater basin, off the coast of the state of São Paulo.
In addition to the PAC, Dilma launched in 2009 the My House, My Life Program, to build one million subsidized homes for low-income families, financed by the Caixa Económica Federal. Also, it worked on developing the model of digital television, adopted in 2006, and the installation of broadband for the Internet in schools.
But Dilma also received criticism from the traditional press and opposition parties, who accused her of having organized an intelligence group to obtain questionable data from the main opposition candidate, José Serra, in order to discredit him. Already in the electoral campaign, Lula and Dilma would also receive various fines for violations of the electoral fair competition regulations.
Dilma Rousseff as a Candidate for 2010 elections
Shortly after Lula began his second term on January 1, 2007, Dilma's name was already mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed him. Corruption scandals continued to harm the main figures of the PT, including leaders who a few years earlier presented themselves as reliable successors to Lula, such as José Dirceu or Antonio Palocci. But at the same time that the PT was discredited by public opinion, Lula strengthened its image and the idea of "Turismo" was installed as a political current. Lula would take advantage of this strong personalization of Brazilian politics to choose his successor.
On September 23, Education Minister Fernando Haddad said it was his "belief" that the President had decided that the candidate would be Rousseff. Something similar declared on October 9, the Minister of Justice, Tarso Genro. Finally, on November 13 in Rome, Lula declared in a press conference with Italian media:
At that time, the polls indicated that the PSDB candidate, José Serra, had a voting intention of 40% and that Rousseff barely gathered 10% support, behind even other candidates, such as Ciro Gomes, from the PSB and Heloísa Helena, of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL).
During 2009 Dilma focused on her work as Chief of Cabinet, the management of the PAC, and consolidating her public image with a view to a better position as a presidential candidate. That same year they detected a malignant tumor that was removed, and he had to undergo chemotherapy.
At the beginning of 2010, it had not yet been defined whether Dilma would compete internally in the PT, or the party would formally validate Lula's decision by acclamation. The latter was what finally happened and on February 20, 2010, she was proclaimed a presidential candidate by the IV Congress of the PT. For vice president, she would be accompanied by Michel Temer of the PMDB-SP, as a consequence of the decisive alliance of the PT with the PMDB, the second most important party in the country, which Lula had been working hard to achieve in a joint formula in 2010.
On March 29, Lula and Dilma, still in office as Chief of Cabinet, presented in an act that the opposition described as electoral and the Globo network as a "mega-event", the second, much more ambitious Growth Acceleration Program (PAC II) than the first, with an investment of 1.59 trillion reais.
On March 31, Dilma left her positions in the State, due to the requirements of the electoral law.
In May he radically changed his style (hairstyle, shapes, speaking more simply), and polls already indicated that there was an advantage in his favor over Serra.
On June 13, he officially launched his candidacy.
On July 6, he presented his government program, entitled "For Brazil to keep changing."
During the electoral campaign, the country's traditional press, especially Red Globo, expressed a strong confrontation against Lula and Dilma, attributing to him being authoritarian and to her being a "puppet."
Dilma Rousseff: 2010 Elections
On October 3, the 2010 General Elections of Brazil were held. Dilma obtained 46.8% of the votes, Serra 32.6% and Marina Silva, the former Minister of the Environment who resigned and left the PT due to her confrontation with Dilma, obtained 19.3%, in which he considered the surprise of the day.
Due to not having reached 50% of the votes and according to the Brazilian constitution, the result determined that a second round should be held between Dilma and Serra. It was held on October 31, 2010, with Dilma Rousseff triumphing by obtaining 55,752,529 votes, representing 56.05% of the total valid votes.
That same night Dilma addressed the country for the first time as President, highlighting a central point for her government: the eradication of poverty.
Dilma Rousseff's electoral triumph allowed the Brazilian people to elect a woman for the first time in history to occupy the highest position of power in the country. Dilma's election as president of Brazil coincided with the election of other women as presidents in Latin America in the same decade, such as Mireya Moscoso in Panama (1999-2004), Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) in Chile, Cristina Kirchner (2007-2011 and 2011-2015) in Argentina and Laura Chinchilla Miranda (2010-2014) in Costa Rica, in a gendered process that has no antecedents in Latin American history. Prior to the three South American presidents mentioned, only Latin American women had become presidents in exceptional circumstances, if not accidental, with the exception of Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) in Nicaragua and by succession María Estela Martínez in Argentina (1974 -1976).
The day after being elected president, Dilma made a significant media gesture by differentiating herself from a tradition that all previous Brazilian presidents complied with: that the first interview with the press had to be carried out with the powerful Red Globo, the country's main media network. Dilma instead opted for the Record Network, which in turn sent two female journalists to interview her.
Dilma Rousseff: Presidency (2010-2016)
Asuncion
Dilma assumed the presidency on January 1, 2011, in a ceremony held before the plenary session of the National Congress, in Brasilia. The ceremony was conducted by the then president of the Federal Senate, former President José Sarney.
He read the official commitment to "maintain, defend and comply with the Constitution, observe the laws, promote the general good of the Brazilian people, sustains the union, integrity, and independence of Brazil." The vice-president, Michel Temer, also read his official commitment, and then the national anthem played by the band of the Naval Rifle Corps was heard.
In her inauguration speech, Dilma declared her commitment to eradicate poverty in Brazil and create opportunities for all. He also emphasized the importance of having chosen a woman for the position and hoped that this fact would open the doors for other women in the future. He thanked former President Lula da Silva and made special mention of José Alencar, who could not be present because he was admitted to a hospital. He completed his speech by recalling that a long evolution of the country was still necessary for the political and economic aspects, also highlighting the relevance of Brazil on the international scene.
According to the Police, some 30,000 people attended the assumption event.
Eleven presidents were present at the ceremony, including Hugo Chávez from Venezuela, Pepe Mujica from Uruguay, Sebastián Piñera from Chile, Alan García from Peru, Fernando Lugo from Paraguay and Juan Manuel Santos from Colombia.
Presidents Mauricio Funes ( El Salvador ), Álvaro Colom ( Guatemala ), Alpha Condé ( Guinea ), and Boyko Borisov ( Bulgaria ) were also present, the latter due to the Bulgarian ancestry of the president. And the Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Clinton, José Socrates, Prime Minister of Portugal and the former Japanese Prime Minister, Taro Aso. The most notable absences were that of the presidents of Argentina and Bolivia, Cristina Kirchner, and Evo Morales.
Dilma assumed power with the burden of having to confront an influential press that spread that the head of the Executive Power was Lula. A year after taking office, when Dilma had managed to convince public opinion that it was she who really wielded power in Brazil, the Madrid newspaper El País published an article entitled "Manda Ella" where it says:
Economic and labor policy
The first two years of Dilma's government (2011 and 2012) were spent in the framework of the European and American crisis that began in 2008.
In 2010, Economy Minister Guido Mantega denounced that the United States and the European Union had started a currency war in order to transfer the crisis to the rest of the world.
In this context, the Dilma government adopted several protectionist measures in order to "shield" the Brazilian economy.
While GDP had grown 7.5% in 2010, the growth rate in the next two years fell to 2.7% in 2011 and 0.9% in 2012.
In 2013 the Central Bank forecast growth of 3.1%.
Likewise, the real followed a strong devaluation trend, which in 2012 exceeded 12% and which the Minister of Economy Guido Mantega defined as a "detoxification" process as part of "a new economic matrix."
Despite low economic growth, Dilma's government maintained a policy of low unemployment and real wage support, in order to improve social indicators and sustain the domestic market. The minimum wage that was at R $ 510 (the US $ 275) when assuming, was raised to R $ 622 (the US $ 348) for 2012 and R $ 678 for 2013 (the US $ 326). The evolution implied a 33% nominal increase in reais, but at the same time, a slight reduction in dollars of 6% compared to 2012, due to the devaluation of the real. The unemployment rate, for its part, fell to its historical minimum at the end of 2012, with 5.5%.
Social police
Dilma made the main objective of her administration to end extreme poverty in Brazil by the end of her term. Worldwide, a person who receives less than US $ 1.25 per day is considered to be in a situation of extreme poverty. Based on the Fome Zero Program ( Zero Hunger, Lula had achieved a notable reduction in extreme poverty, which fell from 19 million people to 10 million people in 2009, a downward trend that had stagnated in its last year government, impacted by the world crisis.
In this way, when Dilma took office, extreme poverty had risen again, settling in 12 million people in 2011.
In 2011 Dilma reported that there were still 16 million Brazilians living in extreme poverty.
Dilma, who had managed the PAC during the Lula government, considered that until that moment, social plans had mainly addressed the aspect of direct monetary income for people living in extreme poverty, but that this approach had reached a limit and New programs needed to be designed to vigorously address the multidimensional nature of poverty.
Dilma also found a place as a functionary of the portal.in.gov with Lula that there were a lot of people in extreme poverty who were left out of the plans of her Brasília, one of the cities of the province of the Capital, to make a federal government commission in the Federal District, known as "La Búlgara".
"Brazil is moving forward refining its social policy more and more," Dilma would say in 2012. With these criteria in mind, it launched Brazil Without Poverty Program in June 2011, which on the one hand sought to address the multiple components of extreme poverty (income, poverty, informality, education, health, housing, gender, etc.) and, on the other hand, it established for the first time a state organization to locate people in poverty, resorting to the active participation of the municipalities.
The Minister of Social Development, Tereza Campello, said on that occasion: Dilma's social policy for a multidimensional approach to the fight against extreme poverty considers six basic dimensions: monetary income (income inequalities by gender or race, access to credit cards, banking, etc.), productive insertion (unemployment, informality, child labor, unionization, etc.), demographic condition (number of children per family, black or female heads of household, internal migrants, etc.), education (illiteracy, desertion, access to digitization, etc.), conditions of life (sanitary services, pavement, lighting, housing, electricity, transportation, etc.) and food security (access to food, quality, prices).
The Brasil Sin Miseria program assigned each beneficiary a monthly sum of R $ 70 (the US $ 33) and a series of coordinated actions that could attack all dimensions of poverty, especially productive inclusion - professional qualification, technical assistance, rural extension and promotion to production - and access to public goods and services, especially in the areas of health, education, housing, access to water and electricity. The implementation of the program assigns an essential role to the municipalities.
In the span of two years, 2 million people were registered and it was estimated that there were still another 700 thousand people to be located. Brazil Without Poverty Plan was complemented by the Green Scholarship, My House, My Life II, and Brazil Cariñoso programs.
The Beca Verde program was launched simultaneously with the Brasil Sin Miseria program. Aimed at the rural population living in extreme poverty, it aims to promote environmental protection and recycling behaviors, assigning a subsidy of 100 rea is per month.
The Mi Casa, Mi Vida II program was launched on June 16, 2011, and aims to build two million homes by 2014, with an investment of 125 million rea is (about 78 million dollars). It means an expansion of the first version of the program launched in 2009, during the Lula government, which had proposed to build a million homes, of which 250,000 had already been delivered at the time of announcing the second part. Dilma's version of the program seeks to include some sectors of the lower middle class, improve the quality of homes, install solar-powered water heaters to "reduce the electricity bill" and allow women who are heads of household to can subscribe to the program without the need for the husband's signature.
On May 13, 2012, Dilma launched the Brasil Cariñoso program, an extension of the already existing Beca Familia ( Bolsa Familia ). The program is aimed at children under six years of age living in extreme poverty. To this end, it assigns to each family an amount of R $ 70 (33 dollars) for each child under 6 years of age, at the same time that it is proposed to build six thousand nurseries, as well as child health measures, such as vitamin A and iron supplements and free medication for children with asthma.
In October 2012, the government announced that it had rescued 2,800,000 children from poverty thanks to the "Brasil Cariñoso" program.
International politic
Dilma's international policy continued the general lines of the orientation imposed by Lula as of 2002, characterized by the consolidation of a global power pole in South America expressed in Unasur and financially supported by Mercosur, the growing autonomy of Latin America, the drive towards multipolar world order, the prioritization of South-South relations, the consolidation of the Brazilian presence in Africa, the development of leading conduct in the G20 and in the BRICS Group, as well as the campaign to include Brazil as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The priority of Dilma Rousseff's foreign policy is Mercosur, which was evidenced by the fact that her first trip abroad was to Argentina and Uruguay, although she omitted Paraguay due to the irregular situation of her government. considered as coming from a coup, by Brazil and the rest of the Mercosur countries.
In mid-2011, it concluded an important economic agreement between Brazil and Venezuela, made up of fourteen infrastructure investment agreements, including the construction of a shipyard worth 637,000,000 dollars for the Venezuelan city of Sucre, granted by the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) of Brazil, in which Brazilian companies will participate.
In late 2012, the media traditional and opposition pressed for Dilma unaware of the Venezuelan government, because of the disease President Hugo Chavez, which would eventually cause his death, but Dilma's decision was to recognize the legitimacy of Vice President Nicolás Maduro.
With regard to the Americas, on her first trip to the United States, Dilma demanded that Obama end the economic embargo on Cuba. At the VI Summit of the Americas, which was held in Cartagena, he declared that it should be the last without Cuban participation. Dilma also questioned the US monetary policy ( Currency War ), arguing that they diminish the competitiveness of emerging countries, claiming a relationship "between equals." He also criticized European economic policies, arguing that they will lead to Europe to a " brutal recession "
Rousseff's foreign agenda gave an important place to the development of relations with Africa, both international and interregional. At the III South America-Africa Summit held in New Guinea in February 2013, Dilma declared that:
One of the characteristics of Dilma's foreign policy was her decision to give a high profile to issues related to human rights. This produced an inflection in Brazil's relationship with Iran, which Lula had notably strengthened, but accompanied at the same time by a strong questioning of the United States for the blockade against the Persian country.
Dilma's global agenda also includes the objective of encouraging the G20 and other global bodies to adopt executive decisions on climate change, as well as reforming the UN Security Council, so that Latin America and Africa also have a permanent place in the same.
Dilma has also been determined to achieve a substantive change in the pattern of international trade relations, to "depolarize" the content of exports from South American countries, especially with the United States, Europe, and China.
Dilma Rousseff: Human rights and diversity policy
National Truth Commission
On November 18, 2011, President Rousseff sanctioned two laws, the Law on Free Access to Public Information, and the law that creates the National Truth Commission (CNV), to investigate human rights violations committed by State agents. between 1946 and 1988, that is, from the resignation to which Getulio Vargas was forced, which opened the way to the so-called New Republic (1945-1964), until the Constitution of 1988, which definitively closed the period of the military dictatorship ( 1964-1985).
The CNV was established on May 16, 2012, and was given a period of two years to investigate and produce a detailed report on the human rights violations that occurred in the period 1946-1988, the victims, and the agents who caused them. The Commission is made up of seven personalities appointed by the President: Rosa Maria Cardoso da Cunha, Dilma's lawyer during the dictatorship; José Carlos Dias, former Minister of Justice during the presidency of Fernando Henrique; Gilson Dipp, Minister of the Superior Federal Court (STF); Claudio Fonteles, former Attorney General of the Republic (2003-2005); Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur; Maria Rita Kehl, psychoanalyst, and writer; and José Paulo Cavalcanti Filho, lawyer, and writer.
In Brazil, there is an Amnesty Law enacted in 1979 that prevents the prosecution of those responsible for crimes against humanity committed before that date. Human rights organizations have been maintaining that the law is void in terms of preventing the prosecution and punishment of people who may have committed crimes against humanity.
On the contrary, some military sectors questioned Dilma's decision to investigate only the action of the State in the field of human rights and not to investigate the actions of citizens who may have committed political crimes during that period.
In response to the official initiative, these groups created a Parallel Truth Commission, which intends to produce its own report on the events and provide legal advice to the military who are investigated.
Sexual diversity
Upon arriving at the presidential palace of Planalto, in Brasilia, Rousseff announced her willingness to promote women (a decision mocked by the press, calling the government a “Republic of high heels”). But it has barely managed to appoint them in 24% of the ministries and in 21% of the so-called “second-level” positions, that is, in cabinets and large public companies. Appointments depend on the political parties of the coalition, which - with the exception of the Workers' Party (PT) - are little prone to positive discrimination.
During the electoral campaign for the second round, Dilma made a commitment with various religious leaders not to send to parliament any bill to establish equal marriage or to decriminalize abortion. The decision was made after evaluating that a large part of the "religious vote" had not supported her in the first round due to her position on abortion and that the issue became crucial for the victory in the second round.
On October 15, 2010, Dilma released an open letter to define her position, in which she declared that:
In the open letter, Dilma also promised to review the PNDH3 (National Human Rights Program), in everything that affects the family. The PNDH3 had been approved during Lula's presidency and established, among other points, the separation of the State and the Church, the "recognition of the union between homosexuals" and the professionalization of prostitution. Dilma also mentions PLC 122 (Bill for a Brazil without Homophobia), which was under treatment in the Senate, and promised that, if approved as law, she would sanction only those articles "that do not violate the freedom of belief, worship, and expression and other constitutional guarantees ".
In May 2011, Dilma vetoed the so-called "Kit Against Homophobia", a campaign by the Ministry of Education to combat homophobia in schools and colleges, which had received praise from UNESCO for its anti-discrimination content.
Dilma's policy towards abortion and sexual diversity generated immediate criticism from feminist, LGTB and human rights organizations, who point out that Brazil is one of the most homophobic countries in the world, where the highest number of murders are registered LGBT world, with 266 in 2011 and 130 in the first five months of 2012.
In December 2011 Dilma was not present at the 2nd National LGBT Conference, a forum created by Lula so that sexual and gender diversity organizations could debate public policies that affected them. In her place, the Minister of Human Rights, Maria do Rosário, attended, who received a thunderous boo from the attendees.
In March 2012, Dilma suffered a new setback when she received the "Pau de Sebo" (Soap stick) award, in a traditional award known as "the Gay Oscars", organized by the prestigious Bahia Gay Group (GGB), the oldest gay organization in Latin America. The Pau de Sebo is the "prize" that is given to the enemies of the LGTB movement.
Policy against corruption
From the beginning of her government, both the most powerful media and the opposition parties, pressured Dilma, focusing on corruption and focusing on the scandal of monthly payments ( mensalão ), which they called "The trial of the century. ". The issue is politically complex because it involves senior PT leaders, and even Lula himself, whom a large part of the media and opposition parties seek to link to corruption. At stake than the relationship Dilma-Lula and the PT-Dilma, relationship and therefore the governance itself the management of the President.
The British newspaper Open Democracy pointed out the political complexity of the corruption issue in Brazil, noting that:
On September 7, 2011, the independence day of Brazil, thousands of people called on themselves through social networks and the media took to the streets in various cities of the country to demand that the government "stop stealing" and condemn in an exemplary manner.
Dilma's response was to take the initiative and assume a policy of "fixing" (cleaning) that found great support from the population. During the first year of his government, seven ministers resigned under pressure from the Presidency, after allegations of corruption came to light, some of them linked to preparations for the 2014 Soccer World Cup. In another act against corruption, eighteen officials Cabinet of the Presidency in Sao Paulo was removed from office by order of the President.
In that climate, on November 12, 2012, the first decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for the mensalão took place, condemning José Dirceu, former president of the PT and Lula's right-hand man, to 10 years and 10 months from prison. Guilt was established in a split decision of six to four judges, in the midst of a public controversy among judicial officials, due to the lack of prior announcement to the other judges by the investigating judge. The Supreme Court finally sentenced 25 of the 37 defendants, who were joined by three deputies who were convicted without having been tried, a fact that generated a strong interdict between the Judicial Power and the Legislative Power.
After the sentence, Dilma declared that as president she could not discuss the decisions of the Supreme Court, but rather abide by them.
Anti-corruption policies produced an increase in the positive image of 71%, four points more than the July measurement.
Soccer World Cup and the Olympic Games
During the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil was chosen as the venue for the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to its importance as a global event, the Soccer World Cup also acquires great political importance, as it was held between June 12 and July 13, a few months before the 2014 presidential elections, which were held on June 5. October.
At the end of 2011, the Minister of Sports Orlando Silva - of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) - resigned due to complaints of irregularities in sports social programs. His resignation generated a crisis in the government since Silva was one of the organizers of the Soccer World Cup and the Olympic Games. At the international level, FIFA was concerned about the crisis in the Ministry of Sport, as well as the state of the works.
FIFA was "concerned", and forced the President to meet, at the end of 2012, with the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter to resolve the difficulties that the organization presented. On that occasion Blatter said:
