Home Appointments President
President
Brazil Government
| Appointee | Dilma Rousseff |
|---|---|
| Role | President |
| Organisation | Brazil Government |
| Domain | Politics |
| Start | 1 January 2011 |
| End | 31 August 2016 |
| Notes | First woman President of Brazil; impeached and removed from office |
Institutional context
The President of Brazil is the head of state and head of government of the largest country in Latin America, directly elected to a four-year term. The modern constitutional framework dates to 1988. From 1889 through January 2011 every holder was male.
Career path
Dilma Vana Rousseff (born 1947) was active in Marxist resistance to the Brazilian military dictatorship in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was imprisoned and tortured between 1970 and 1972, and entered formal politics during the post-1985 democratic transition. She earned a degree in economics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She served as Minister of Mines and Energy (2003–2005) and Chief of Staff (2005–2010) under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Appointment
She won the October 2010 presidential election with approximately 56 percent of the second-round vote and was sworn in on 1 January 2011. She is the first woman President of Brazil.
Tenure
Five years and eight months. Tenure was marked by the Lava Jato corruption investigation, a deep economic recession, and substantial public protests. The Senate impeached and removed her on 31 August 2016 on charges related to fiscal-management irregularities; she was succeeded by Vice President Michel Temer.
Cluster context
Rousseff's 2011 appointment continues the Latin American sequence. Her impeachment alongside Park Geun-hye's 2017 impeachment in South Korea is the dataset's record of two woman heads of state removed from office through formal constitutional procedures within an eighteen-month period.