Dilma Rousseff is the first woman to lead Brazil

Dilma Rousseff became the first woman to lead Brazil, after promising to build on an unprecedented run of economic success achieved by her popular predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Rousseff received the symbolic presidential sash from outgoing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left office with a resounding approval rating of 87%.Brazil boomed under Lula, becoming the largest economy in Latin America and shedding millions from the ranks of the poor.

Rousseff, 63, is a former Marxist guerrilla who survived torture under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s.

She had never held elected office, and won a runoff in October largely because of the backing of her mentor Lula, who campaigned heavily for his former chief of staff.

Rousseff sait that,”I will not rest while there are Brazilians who have no food on their tables, while there are desperate families on the streets, while there are poor children abandoned to their own devices.”

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