Dilma Rousseff: From fugitive guerrilla to Brazil's new president

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CNN

Dilma Rousseff: From fugitive guerrilla to Brazil's new president
By Helena de Moura, CNN
October 31, 2010 10:53 p.m. EDT

http://i.cdn.turner.com.nyud.net:8090/cnn/2010/WORLD/americas/10/31/brazil.winner.profile/t1larg.dilma.rousseff2.gi.jpg

Dilma Rousseff was once one of most Brazil's most wanted fugitives, branded by some as a
"subversive Joan of Arc."

(CNN) -- Dilma Rousseff, who was elected as Brazil's first female president on Sunday, once told reporters that as a typical Brazilian girl in the 1950s she dreamed of becoming a ballerina.

But as the 1960s saw the emergence of a brutal military regime in her country, she had to make some hard choices.

"I quickly discovered that the world had no place for debutantes," Rousseff told reporters.

The daughter of a well-educated Bulgarian emigre, Rousseff took piano lessons as a child and was educated in a French-speaking Catholic school.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/31/brazil.winner.profile/index.html?hpt=C1

[Judi Lynn]

1. I've heard of the torture device they used on this President-elect.

It's mentioned in the article in the following:

When the military finally arrested her in 1970, Rousseff, now 62, says she was severely tortured in order to give up secrets.

She told Istoe magazine in 2008 that as a prisoner she was often tied up to the infamous "parrot's perch," a torture device used by Brazil's military police in which the victim is suspended between two metal platforms.

"They gave me electrical shocks, a lot of electrical shocks," Rousseff told Istoe. "I began to hemorrhage, but I withstood. I wouldn't even tell them where I lived," she said.

http://www.brazzil.com.nyud.net:8090/images/stories/2004/nov04/parrots_perch_torture.jpg


""Tortura nunca mais" (Torture never again)
This is a monument constructed by the human rights group "TORTURA NUNCA MAIS." This monument depicts the atrocity of torture showing a victim of the "pau de arrara," the infamous "parrot's perch" torture rack, widely used in Brazil during the Military dictatorial regime in the late 60’s and 70’s."

Wikipedia:
Torture technique
Pau de arara can also refer to a physical torture technique designed to cause severe joint and muscle pain, as well as headaches, and psychological trauma. The technique consists of a tube, bar, or pole placed over the victim's biceps and behind the knees while tying the victim's both ankles and wrists together. The entire assembly is suspended between two metal platforms forming what looks like a parrot's perch.

This technique is believed to originate from Portuguese slave traders, which used Pau de arara as a form of punishment for disobedient slaves. Its usage has been more recently widespread by the agents of the political police of the Brazilian military dictatorship against political dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s and it still believed to be in use by Brazilian police forces<1>, although outlawed<1>. The device was often used as a restraint for a combination of other torture techniques, such as water boarding, nail pulling, branding, electric shocks, and sexual torture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pau_de_Arara

[sabrina 1]

3. We need monument like that in this country.

This is such an inspiring story. I hope they are prosecuting their war criminals now. Maybe one day we will too.

[jonthebru]

2. And a cancer survivor too!

It is really hard to understand how someone can go through such events and still be able to rise to a level like this. Some people are just meant to by their character and place in history.
Amazing Woman.

[southmost]

4. wow, such inspiration in strength

hard to believe she's president of Brazil

[xchrom]

5. congrats ms. rouseff. nt

[David__77]

6. That she was a revolutionary guerrilla shows she has passion and a sense of justice.

She put herself on the line for the defense of the people against a brutal, fascist US-supported government. I hope that the same humanist passion will motivate her to carry further the reforms initiated with Lula. Brazil is the pivot of a continental unity.

[boppers]

7. Hell of a resume.

Watchlisted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff

[Judi Lynn]

8. Interesting the one who prepared the Wiki felt it was appropriate to use material taken from torture

sessions, and treat it as the god's truth.

The author did appear to have scanned a decent article on Dilma Rousseff, written by a completely DECENT writer, Hugh O'Shaughnessy:

Former guerrilla Dilma Rousseff set to be the world's most powerful woman
Brazil looks likely to elect an extraordinary leader next weekend
By Hugh O'Shaughnessy
Sunday, 26 September 2010

The world's most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil.

As head of state, president Dilma Rousseff would outrank Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State: her enormous country of 200 million people is revelling in its new oil wealth. Brazil's growth rate, rivalling China's, is one that Europe and Washington can only envy.

Her widely predicted victory in next Sunday's presidential poll will be greeted with delight by millions. It marks the final demolition of the "national security state", an arrangement that conservative governments in the US and Europe once regarded as their best artifice for limiting democracy and reform. It maintained a rotten status quo that kept a vast majority in poverty in Latin America while favouring their rich friends.

~snip~
Ms Rousseff is likely to invite President Mujica of Uruguay to her inauguration in the New Year. President Evo Morales of Bolivia, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay – other successful South American leaders who have, like her, weathered merciless campaigns of denigration in the Western media – are also sure to be there. It will be a celebration of political decency – and feminism.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-former-guerrilla-set-to-be-the-worlds-most-powerful-woman-2089916.html

[boppers]

10. "the one who prepared the Wiki"?

It doesn't work that way. At all.

There are, quite literally, *hundreds* of people working on each article, and in some cases, thousands. Her article has been limited to "trusted" editors, i.e. those who manage to edit articles for a while without pissing others off.

Here's the last 50 edits on that article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dilma_Rousseff&action=history

Mediawiki politics is essentially a mashup between a meritocracy, raw democracy, anarchism, socialism, and libertarianism.

It's a funny mix, which is what makes it work. It's also what makes for so much contention, because there is *no* single author, *no* authority, *no* specific voice. Debates are thrashed out on "Talk" pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dilma_Rousseff

...where you can see folks arguing about what should, and shouldn't, be included, what language to use, etc.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Great photo included at your link:

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Dilma_Rousseff_Michel_Temer.png/800px-Dilma_Rousseff_Michel_Temer.png

Dilma Rousseff with her running mate for the 2010 Brazilian presidential election, Michel Temer.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Words of wisdom from feeble, yet truculent Republican Connie Mack to Dilma Rousseff:

Connie Mack Touches Base on New Brazilian President Dilma Roussef
Kevin Derby's blog | Posted: November 1, 2010 4:16 PM

Kevin Derby's blog | Posted: November 1, 2010 4:16 PM
Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, weighed in on the election of Dilma Rousseff as president of Brazil.

“I’m hopeful that the election of Ms. Rousseff will allow our relationship with Brazil to move forward and lead to greater security and prosperity in the region,” said Mack. “Cooperation with this important player in Latin America is a key to U.S. foreign policy in the region, and it is my hope we will be able to strengthen our partnership with Brazil under Ms. Rousseff.”

“President-elect Rousseff must decide if she will continue outgoing President Lula’s relationship with thugocrats like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s Castro Brothers, and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,“ added Mack. “Ms. Rousseff’s election is an opportunity for Brazil to reject Chavez and Ahmadinejad’s destabilizing influence in the hemisphere, and strengthen freedom, security and prosperity for the entire region.”

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/blog/connie-mack-touches-base-new-brazilian-president-dilma-roussef

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com.nyud.net:8090/images/connie-mack-muck.jpg http://www.clevelandleader.com.nyud.net:8090/files/mack-bono-married.JPG

Connie Mack, and wife, Mary Bono Mack.