The next president of Brasil, no doubt

The Former Guerrilla Set to be the World's Most Powerful Woman

Brazil looks likely to elect an extraordinary leader next weekend

by Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Published on Sunday, September 26, 2010 by the Independent/UK

The world's most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil.

As head of state, president Dilma Rousseff would outrank Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State: her enormous country of 200 million people is revelling in its new oil wealth. Brazil's growth rate, rivalling China's, is one that Europe and Washington can only envy.

Brazilian presidential candidate for the ruling Workers Party Dilma Rousseff stands during a television debate in Sao Paulo September 12, 2010. (Reuters/Nacho Doce)