Dilma Rousseff, Brazil Presidential Candidate, Poised For Victory (PHOTOS)
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Brazilian presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff faced few challenges in her final televised debate Thursday, and early reports are predicting an easy first-round victory for the 62-year-old former guerilla leader when the country's elections commence Sunday.
Well-known to Brazilians as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's former chief of staff, Rousseff is clearly mindful of the wild popularity of her predecessor, often touting the Lula government's achievements in speeches and interviews. If she indeed sweeps to victory as Brazil's first female president this weekend, she would, in effect, outrank Germany's Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the world's most powerful woman, according to The Independent.
"Women are ready to govern Brazil and, more importantly, Brazil is ready to be governed by a woman," Rousseff, a member of Lula's Workers Party (PT) is quoted by The Guardian as saying. After describing women are "sensible, practical and sensitive," she went on to note that "these are important qualities for someone who wants to govern a country."
The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant and a teacher, Rousseff coordinated resistance activities and handled weapons as a member of an underground student resistance group in the 1960s, and was eventually arrested and tortured. Her guerilla-type background has drawn comparisons to former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, a single mother and pediatrician who survived exile during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile before entering politics.
DILMA ROUSSEFF IN PHOTOS:
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ewillies said on 2 Saturday 2010 pm31 12:37 pm: Many Americans are not yet cognizant of the real power of Brazil's economy backed as well by huge untapped natural resources. While we haggle at home about insidious social issues as we watch a disappearing middleclass, we have countries like Brazil electing governments that see their people as well as a resource with a goal of breaking the oligarchy. For the last 30 years we have been doing the exact opposite. While we are so far ahead of the entire world in real wealth and power, we are on the fast decline. Until we wake up, stop patting ourselves on the back as the rest of the world go by, and start voting in our own middleclass financial interest, we will be a failed country with the Oligarchs moving on to the next country to attempt to pilfer. --- My Book Title: As I See It: Class Warfare: The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Amazon(Paperback): http://amzn.to/dt72c7 |
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The Huffington Post Curtis M. Wong First Posted: 10/01/10 05:33 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 06:55 PM ET