Head of State

Brazil Elects First Woman President

Dilma Rousseff, cabinet minister and former leftist guerrilla.

Brazil has elected its first female president, Dilma Rousseff. President Luiz Inacio da Silva’s right-hand woman and a former leftist guerrilla, Rousseff defeated her centrist opponent, Jose Serra, according to the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Rousseff has served as da Silva’s chief of staff, and as energy minister she claims to have helped turn Brazil into an energy giant. The election also saw the debut of new biometric electronic voting machines that register votes after taking a scan of a voter's thumbs. Officials say that all regions of the country, including remote towns in the Amazon, will have the machines, with some delivered by boat and helicopter.