Earlier this week Brazil elected Dilma Rousseff as its president. This is the first time that Brazil has elected a woman to be president. Rousseff is a former Marxist-Leninist guerrilla fighter, and she is the protege of outgoing president Ignacio Lula DaSilva.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101101/wl_afp/brazilvote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff garnered 56% of the vote. The outgoing Ignacio Lula DaSilva had an 80% approval rating, but was barred by the constitution from running again for president.

In the 1970s Dilma Rousseff had been imprisoned and tortured by the CIA-backed dictatorship of General Emilio Garrastazu Medici. After her release from prison, she took a less radical political stance and joined the Brazilian Democratic Labour Party (social democrats) and slowly climbed the ladder of power until becoming Lula DaSilva's chief of staff in 2005.

Dilma Rousseff is inheriting a booming economy and an overvalued currency. She will have to implement austerity measures to curb inflation and lobby with China and the US to stop artificially lowering their currencies to stimulate their own economies.

It will be interesting to see how the Americanj overnment deals with the increasing influence of the left wing in Latin America. Democratically elected left wing governments will put their own national interests ahead of those of foreign powers and corporations. The US and Europe will have to work with these presidents for improved relations and greater trade while accepting the increasing shift to the left in Latin America.