Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is slated to speak this month at San Diego State University about the future of democracy in her South American country.
Rousseff, who served as Brazil’s first female president from 2011-2016, is scheduled to appear at Montezuma Hall, Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, April 18 at 4 p.m.
Rousseff comes to San Diego with much to say. In 2016, she was impeached by Brazil’s National Congress for allegedly breaking a budgetary law and was removed from the presidency.
Before her presidential tenure, Rousseff served as Brazil’s minister of energy. She later served as chief of staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), who recently began serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption.
This week, Rousseff kicked off an international tour in support of Lula de Silva and will likely address his imprisonment when she visits SDSU. During a conference in Madrid, Spain, Rousseff on Tuesday called for “international solidarity” and denounced what she said was a politically motivated move by Brazil’s right-wing to jail her predecessor ahead of presidential elections.
“Democracy in Brazil is at risk” because of a “parliamentary coup,” she said during the Madrid conference.
Rousseff’s activism began at an early age. She was a socialist in her youth, and after Brazil’s 1964 coup d’état she joined left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against military dictatorship, according to her biography. She was captured, tortured and jailed from 1970 to 1972.
Since her impeachment, Rousseff has continued to stand for policies she believes in and has maintained her defense of democracy, both in Brazil and internationally.
Rousseff’s April 18 SDSU appearance is part of a joint venture between the university and UC San Diego. A co-sponsor of the event is SDSU’s J. Keith Behner and Catherine M. Stiefel Program on Brazil, which is intended to expand knowledge of the South American country among SDSU faculty and students as well as the greater San Diego community.
Rousseff’s SDSU speech will be delivered in Portuguese with simultaneous translation.
For more information, visit https://brazil.sdsu.edu/events.html.
–Staff
