Dilma Vana Rousseff was the 36th President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. She was the first woman to hold the Presidency of Brazil and the country's third head of state.
Accused of administrative impropriety, she did not complete her second term due to the impeachment process.
Biography
Dilma Rousseff was born on December 14, 1947, in Belo Horizonte/MG.
Raised in an upper-middle-class environment, her parents were a Bulgarian lawyer, Pedro Rousseff, and her teacher, Dilma Jane da Silva. In addition to Dilma, the couple had two more children.
During high school, Dilma participated in political activities in the student movement in Belo Horizonte. At the time, she was 16 years old and fighting the military dictatorship established in Brazil in 1964.
Military Dictatorship
In the period of the military dictatorship in Brazil, she acted as a member of the Colina (National Liberation Command) and VAR-Palmares (Revolutionary Armed Vanguard Palmares) groups, both of Marxist orientation.
In these organizations, Dilma was responsible for giving instructions on socialism, planning actions, guarding weapons and documents. Despite not having participated in armed struggles, Dilma was tried by a military court on charges of subversion, for publicly disagreeing with the dictatorship. The punishment was based on Decree No. 477, of AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5).
For this reason, she served time from 1970 to 1972 in São Paulo. While in prison, Dilma Rousseff was tortured.
The conviction also prevented her from resuming her studies at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais).
A year after leaving prison, she went to live in the city of Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. In her husband Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo's hometown, her only daughter, Paula Rousseff Araújo, was born.
Also in Porto Alegre she would resume her studies at the Faculty of Economics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRS).
Political Trajectory
In Rio Grande do Sul, Dilma spends most of her professional and political life before becoming president. With her husband, she served in the foundation of the PDT (Democratic Labor Party).
She was a PDT bench advisor from 1980 to 1985. In 1986 she is appointed as the holder of the Porto Alegre Secretary of Finance.
She acted in Leonel Brizola's (1922-2004) campaign for the Presidency of the Republic in 1989, which took place in two rounds. In the second, the PDT supported the PT (Workers' Party) candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The winner was the right-wing candidate, Fernando Collor de Mello, of the National Reconstruction Party (PRN), later removed for a crime of responsibility that culminated in his impeachment.
Between 1990 and 1993, Dilma remained in the secretariat of the government of Rio Grande do Sul. She was Secretary of Mines, Energy and Communication of the state of Rio Grande do Sul during the PT Olívio Dutra government, which began in 1998.
Already affiliated with the PT, Dilma is chosen for the position of Minister of Mines and Energy in the Lula government, in 2003. Among the measures implemented during her administration as minister is the regulatory framework for the practices of Mines and Energy.
Dilma is the author of the process of transferring the country's energy matrix to biodiesel. She also authored the program “Luz para Todos”, from 2003, which aims to bring electricity to remote places in Brazil.
As of 2005, Dilma Rousseff becomes head of the Civil House of the Presidency. In her position, she takes over the management of the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program) and the “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” program. Both programs were considered the foundation of the Lula government.
Dilma also coordinated the definition of rules for the exploration of oil reserves off the Brazilian coast. The reserves are in an area called pre-salt, in the Santos basin.
Dilma Government
Dilma's candidacy for the presidency was made official in June 2010. The minister was an alternative to the lack of PT cadres. At the time, the main names at the top of the party were responsible for corruption crimes.
Despite the accusations against the PT, Dilma was elected by the majority of votes. She was 63 years old when she assumed the presidency in 2010, along with vice-president Michel Temer. The ticket wins the candidate of the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party), José Serra.
She was elected again in 2014, taking over the management of the country in 2015. She disputed the election in the second round with Aécio Neves, also from the PSDB.
Impeachment
The president's first term began in January 2011 and ended in December 2014. Despite her administration having been marked by disagreements between the Legislative and the Executive, Dilma Rousseff managed to be reelected in 2014.
However, with the internal and external situation unfavorable, the economic crisis in Brazil increasing, the president was the target of several attacks from her own allies. Accused of administrative probity, the Congress of Deputies authorizes the opening of the impeachment process of Dilma Rousseff.
Dilma was removed in the first half of 2016 by the Federal Senate. In her place, vice-president Michel Temer, from the PMDB (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement) took over.