Brazil’s former President Dilma Rousseff and her husband, Neumann de Souza Faria, were recently arrested by the country’s federal police in a scandal involving alleged kickbacks paid by Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant, to fund Rousseff’s two successful presidential campaigns.
In 2013, Rousseff pleaded guilty to three criminal charges and had her passport confiscated after the Supreme Court found that she was behind the mask of a senator-elect after being elected to office in 2010. She was found guilty and removed from office in 2015. Rousseff was sentenced to six years in prison and five years house arrest and fined $29.7 million.
In 2016, Rousseff, 62, was found guilty again of the same charges and served a 31-month suspended sentence during her time in office. She began a 40-month legal battle to have that sentence overturned and in November 2017 the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Rousseff served the full term and her sentence will become effective on May 14, 2019. However, a January 2018 Supreme Court ruling will keep her in office until May 30, 2019, since she will still be present in Congress.
Rousseff was serving as the president of the Brazilian Senate when she assumed office in 2010. She was impeached by the Brazilian Senate on July 15, 2016, due to her alleged violations of fiscal rules. After Rousseff was removed from office, current President Michel Temer took her place. Temer’s administration was helped by Rousseff’s two-term stint.
LITTLE known about Rousseff’s past
Unlike many Brazilians, Rousseff has refused to receive degrees in politics, sociology, law, medicine or economics, from any university, according to the BBC. She has expressed plans to show her opposition to free trade agreements by restricting Brazilian immigrants. She is opposed to offshore drilling in the Amazon and favors redistribution of the poor in a way that benefit the poor. Rousseff has also supported gay marriage, supports the right to abortion and has criticized the United States and Israel, saying she believes in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
As part of her campaigns, Rousseff reported paying a priest to lead prayer sessions, dietary and spiritual counseling, and planning ceremonies. She also looked for talent to work on her campaigns by accepting donations and taking offers of placement in non-government organizations. One of the former maids Rousseff was taking advantage of and looking after throughout the campaign, among other underdeveloped people, had been detained by police and returned to her family after being found to be pregnant.
Rousseff was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2010 with a record 62 percent of the vote in her largest support. In 2010, Rousseff became Senate president when she defeated Senate President Renan Calheiros, who lost his seat to Rousseff.
In 2015, Rousseff and her husband left the country and briefly returned in April 2016. In July, they left again, though they entered the country again in January 2017. In 2017, they built a new home in Argentina and later in 2018, the family moved to France, according to the BBC.