Brazil elects first Woman President

President-elect Dilma Rousseff, right, smiles as Vice President-elect Michel Temer applauds upon her arrival to give her victory speech after winning the election runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday (photo by AP).

story by Wenatchee World

SAO PAULO — From three years in a dictatorship’s jail cell to just two months away from the presidential palace, the journey has been long for Brazil’s newly elected leader, Dilma Rousseff, who will be the first woman to direct Latin America’s biggest nation.

She is a career civil servant who has never held elected office, but Rousseff easily won Sunday’s presidential runoff election. That was thanks to the wholehearted backing of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who for decades has been a presence on Brazil’s political scene and will leave office as its most popular leader.