\t\t\t\tJust one year after socialist revolutionary, Jose Mujica of Uruguay became president of that country, Brazil is ready to elect another former revolutionary to lead its government.<\/p>\n
Dilma Rousseff, the daughter of Bulgarian immigrants is set to win Brazil’s next presidential election. Currently the prime minister of Brazil, she has risen quickly thru the political system and gained fame as she fought poverty and improved economic security for the poor.<\/p>\n
Back in 1964, under the guise of National Security, Brazil’s generals took power and unleashed a reign of terror upon any group or person that sought equality and freedom from imperialism.<\/p>\n
Ms Rousseff ended up in the clandestine VAR-Palmares (Palmares Armed
\nRevolutionary Vanguard). In the 1960s and 1970s, members of such
\norganisations seized foreign diplomats for ransom: a US ambassador was
\nswapped for a dozen political prisoners; a German ambassador was
\nexchanged for 40 militants; a Swiss envoy swapped for 70. They also shot
\nforeign torture experts sent to train the generals’ death squads.
\nThough she says she never used weapons, she was eventually rounded up
\nand tortured by the secret police in Brazil’s equivalent to Abu Ghraib,
\nthe Tiradentes prison in Sao Paulo. She was given a 25-month sentence
\nfor subversion and freed after three years. Today she openly confesses
\nto having wanted to change the world.<\/p>\n
Her widely predicted victory in next Sunday’s presidential poll will be
\ngreeted with delight by millions. It marks the final demolition of the
\nnational security state, an arrangement that conservative governments
\nin the US and Europe once regarded as their best artifice for limiting
\ndemocracy and reform. It maintained a rotten status quo that kept a vast
\nmajority in poverty in Latin America while favouring their rich
\nfriends.<\/p>\n
Let’s hope her election victory will bring about even more respect for those who’ve dedicated their lives to helping the poor and working classes.<\/p>\n