Dilma Rousseff

Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte.^[3] She became a socialist in her youth. After the 1964 coup d'état she joined left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured, tortured, and jailed from 1970 to 1972.^[3][4]


After her release, Rousseff rebuilt her life in Porto Alegre with her husband Carlos Araújo.^[3] They both helped to found the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Rio Grande do Sul, and participated in several of the party's electoral campaigns. She became the treasury secretary of Porto Alegre under Alceu Collares, and later Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul under both Collares and Olívio Dutra.^[3] In 2001, after an internal dispute in the Dutra cabinet, she left the PDT and joined the Workers' Party (PT).^[3]


In 2002, Rousseff became an energy policy advisor to presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who on winning the election invited her to become his minister of energy.^[3] After chief of Staff José Dirceu resigned in 2005 in a political crisis triggered by the Mensalão corruption scandal, Rousseff became chief of staff and remained in that post until 31 March 2010, when she stepped down to run for president.^[3] She was elected in a run-off in 2010, beating Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) candidate José Serra. In 2014 she won a narrow second-round victory over Aécio Neves, also of PSDB, to serve her second term as president.^[5]


Impeachment proceedings against Rousseff began in the Chamber of Deputies on 3 December 2015. On 12 May 2016, the Senate of Brazil suspended President Rousseff's powers and duties for up to six months or until the Senate decided whether to remove her from office or to acquit her.^[6] Vice President Michel Temer assumed her powers and duties as acting president of Brazil during her suspension.^[7][8] On 31 August 2016, the Senate voted 61–20 to convict, finding Rousseff guilty of breaking budgetary laws, and removed her from office.^[9][10]


On 5 August 2018, the PT officially launched Rousseff's candidacy for a seat in the Federal Senate from the state of Minas Gerais.^[11] Rousseff finished fourth in the final vote and was defeated for her Senate run.^[12]