From Criterio magazine via Mirada Global:

From the first day of the year, Brazil has started to go through a completely different experience: having a woman president for the first time. President Dilma Roussef starts the lineage of women presidents in Brazil. And this entails hopes and challenges for this peoples, who, after having had Lula for eight years, cannot but feel afraid of what’s in store for them.

It is no longer futurology, but the concrete and present reality. It was expected that the election would be defined in the first round. Dilma won in the run-off, but with a considerable margin over José Serra, an experienced and wise politician. After having defeated cancer at the beginning of the campaign and facing a harsh battle against all kinds of different attempts to discredit her, Roussef won the elections and became president. And as she was sworn in on January 1st, she declared with a broken voice and tears in her eyes: “From this moment on, I am the President of every Brazilian”.

Of all Brazilian men, but especially, of all Brazilian women, we could add. If Dilma Roussef sends a message of hope of a government that is oriented towards the poorest will continue on that path, there’s no doubt this hope means even more for women.

Also available in Spanish.

Tim Reidy