Brazil elects first female president

Dilma Rousseff is a former guerilla who has never held elected office.

If it weren’t for a two-consecutive term limit on the presidency, Brazil’s current, hugely popular leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would likely be president-for-life. “Lula,” as he is affectionately known, rose from shoeshine boy to president and his dynamic policies have lifted millions of people out of poverty and made the country a rising economic power. Rousseff, the 62-year-old daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, is Lula’s hand-picked successor and won by vowing to continue most of his policies. She was a member of a militant political group persecuted by Brazil’s dictatorship in the 1970s and was brutally tortured after being arrested by the military police. It’s rumoured Lula will run again in 2014.