Brazil’s first female President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office on 31 August 2016 after the country’s Senate voted 61-20 to impeach her.
Once hailed as a global anti-corruption leader, Rousseff, 68, has struggled to stay in power after being accused of violating fiscal laws by using public bank loans to cover budget shortfalls to boost her re-election chances.
Rousseff was replaced by her former vice president and coalition partner, Michel Temer, 75 who has been running Brazil as interim president since she was suspended to face the impeachment trial in May.
Dilma Vana Rousseff a short biography
- Born on 14 December 1947 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Father: Bulgarian lawyer and entrepreneur Pedro Rousseff (born Petar Rusev)
- Mother: Brazilian schoolteacher Dilma Jane da Silva
- Married Cláudio Galeno Linhares in 1968, and they divorced in 1981
- Has a daughter named Paula Rousseff de Araújo with Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo
- Economics degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
- Joined left-wing organizations in her youth; involved in armed resistance against Brazil’s military dictatorship in the late 1960s and early 1970s
- Arrested in 1970 and imprisoned for nearly three years, during which she was reportedly tortured
- Founded the Democratic Labour Party (PDT)
- Left PDT to join the Workers Party (PT) in 2001
- Energy policy advisor to presidential candidate Luiz Lula da Saliva in 2002
- Minister of Mines and Energy: 2003–2005
- Chief of Staff to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2005 – 2010)
- Defeated PSDB candidate Jose Serra during Brazil’s 2010 presidential elections
- Narrowly defeated PSDB candidate Aecio Neves during Brazil’s 2014 presidential elections
- President of Brazil: 2011–2016 (first woman to hold the office)
