title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Further work most influentially by Stringer, palaeoanthropologist Ian Tattersall, and human evolutionary biologist Phillip Rightmire reported further differences between Middle Pleistocene Afro-European specimens and "H. erectus" "sensu stricto" ("in the strict sense", in this case specimens from East Asia). Consequently, Afro-European remains from 600 to 300 thousand years ago—most notably from Kabwe, Petralona, Bodo and Arago—are often classified as "H. heidelbergensis". In 2010, American physical anthropologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz and Tattersall suggested classifying all Middle Pleistocene European as well as Asian specimens—namely from Dali and Jinniushan in China—as "H. heidelbergensis". This model is not as universally accepted. After the 2010 identification of the genetic code of some unique archaic human species in Siberia, termed "Denisovans" pending diagnostic fossil finds, it is postulated that the Asian remains could represent that same species. Thus, Middle Pleistocene Asian specimens, such as Dali Man or the Indian Narmada Man, remain enigmatic. The palaeontology institute at Heidelberg University, where the Mauer mandible has been kept since 1908, changed the label from "H. e. heidelbergensis" to "H. heidelbergensis" in 2015.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 1976 at Sima de los Huesos (SH) in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, Spanish palaeontologists Emiliano Aguirre, José María Basabe and Trinidad Torres began to excavate archaic human remains. Their investigation of the site was prompted by the finding of several bear remains ("Ursus deningeri") since the early 20th century by amateur cavers (which consequently destroyed some of the human remains in that section). By 1990, about 600 human remains were reported, and by 2004 the number had increased to roughly 4,000. These represent at least 28 individuals, of which possibly only one is a child, and the rest teenagers and young adults. The fossil assemblage is exceptionally complete, with whole corpses buried rapidly, with all bodily elements represented. In 1997, Spanish palaeoanthropologist Juan Luis Arsuaga assigned these to "H. heidelbergensis", but in 2014, he retracted this, stating that Neanderthal-like features present in the Mauer mandible are missing in the SH humans.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In palaeoanthropology, the Middle Pleistocene is often termed the "muddle in the middle" because the species-level classification of archaic human remains from this time period has been heavily debated. The ancestors of modern humans ("Homo sapiens" or "H. s. sapiens") and Neanderthals ("H. neanderthalensis" or "H. s. neanderthalensis") diverged during this time period, and, by convention, "H. heidelbergensis" is typically considered the last common ancestor (LCA). This would make "H. heidelbergensis" a member of a chronospecies. It is much debated if the name "H. heidelbergensis" can be extended to Middle Pleistocene humans across the Old World, or if it is better to restrict it to just Europe. In the latter case, Middle Pleistocene African remains can be split off into ""H. rhodesiensis"". In the latter view, ""H. rhodesiensis"" can either be seen as the direct ancestor of modern humans, or of ""H. helmei"" which evolved into modern humans.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Regarding the Middle Pleistocene European remains, some are more firmly placed on the Neanderthal line (namely SH, Pontnewyyd, Steinheim, and Swanscombe), whereas others seem to have few uniquely Neanderthal features (Arago, Ceprano, Vértesszőlős, Bilzingsleben, Mala Balanica and Aroeira). Because of this, it is suggested there were multiple lineages (or species) in this region and time period, but French palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin considers this an unjustified extrapolation as they may have simply been different but still interconnected populations of a single, highly variable species. In 2015, Marie Antoinette de Lumley suggested the less derived material can also be split off into their own species or a subspecies of "H. erectus s. l." (for example, the Arago material as ""H. e. tautavelensis""). In 2018, Mirjana Roksandic and colleagues revised the hypodigm of "H. heidelbergensis" to include only the specimens with no Neanderthal-derived traits (namely Mauer, Mala Balanica, Ceprano, HaZore'a and Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar). There is no defined distinction between latest potential "H. heidelbergensis" material – specifically Steinheim and SH – and the earliest Neanderthal specimens—Biache, France; Ehringsdorf, Germany; or Saccopastore, Italy.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The use of the Mauer mandible, an isolated jawbone, as the type specimen for the species has been problematic as it does not present many diagnostic features, and in addition it is missing from several Middle Pleistocene specimens. Anthropologist William Straus said on this topic that, "While the skull is the creation of God, the jaw is the work of the devil." If the Mauer mandible is actually a member of a different species than the Kabwe skull and most other Afro-European Middle Pleistocene archaic humans, then ""H. rhodesiensis"" would take priority as the name of the LCA.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 2021, Canadian anthropologist Mirjana Roksandic and colleagues recommended the complete dissolution of "H. heidelbergensis" and ""H. rhodesiensis"", as the name "rhodesiensis" honours English diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes who disenfranchised the black population in southern Africa. They classified all European "H. heidelbergensis" as "H. neanderthalensis", and synonymised "H. rhodesiensis" with a new species they named ""H. bodoensis"" which includes all African specimens, and potentially some from the Levant and the Balkans which have no Neanderthal-derived traits (namely Ceprano, Mala Balanica, HaZore'a and Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar). "H. bodoensis" is supposed to represent the immediate ancestor of modern humans, but does not include the LCA of modern humans and Neanderthals. They suggested the confusing morphology of the Middle Pleistocene was caused by periodic "H. bodoensis" migration events into Europe following population collapses after glacial cycles, interbreeding with surviving indigenous populations. Their taxonomic recommendations were rejected by Stringer and others as they failed to explain how exactly their proposals would resolve anything, in addition to violating nomenclatural rules.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: "H. heidelbergensis" is thought to have descended from African "H. erectus" — sometimes classified as "Homo ergaster" — during the first early expansions of hominins out of Africa beginning roughly 2 million years ago. Those that dispersed across Europe and stayed in Africa evolved into "H. heidelbergensis" or speciated into "H. heidelbergensis" in Europe and ""H. rhodesiensis"" in Africa, and those that dispersed across East Asia evolved into "H. erectus s. s." The exact derivation from an ancestor species is obfuscated by a long gap in the human fossil record near the end of the Early Pleistocene. In 2016, Antonio Profico and colleagues suggested that 875,000-year-old skull materials from the Gombore II site of the Melka Kunture Formation, Ethiopia, represent a transitional morph between "H. ergaster" and "H. heidelbergensis", and thus postulated that "H. heidelbergensis" originated in Africa instead of Europe.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: According to genetic analysis, the LCA of modern humans and Neanderthal split into a modern human line, and a Neanderthal/Denisovan line, and the latter later split into Neanderthal and Denisovans. According to nuclear DNA analysis, the 430,000-year-old SH humans are more closely related to Neanderthals than Denisovans (and that the Neanderthal/Denisovan, and thus the modern human/Neanderthal split, had already occurred), suggesting the modern human/Neanderthal LCA had existed long before many European specimens typically assigned to "H. heidelbergensis" did, such as the Arago and Petralona materials.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 1997, Spanish archaeologist , Arsuaga, and colleagues described the roughly million-year-old "H. antecessor" from Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, and suggested supplanting this species in the place of "H. heidelbergensis" for the LCA between modern humans and Neanderthals, with "H. heidelbergensis" descending from it and being a strictly European species ancestral to only Neanderthals. They later recanted. In 2020, Dutch molecular palaeoanthropologist Frido Welker and colleagues analysed ancient proteins collected from an "H. antecessor" tooth found that it was a member of a sister lineage to the LCA rather than being the LCA itself (that is, "H. heidelbergensis" did not derive from "H. antecessor").


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Human dispersal beyond 45°N seems to have been quite limited during the Lower Palaeolithic, with evidence of short-lived dispersals northward beginning after a million years ago. Beginning 700,000 years ago, more permanent populations seem to have persisted across the line coinciding with the spread of hand axe technology across Europe, possibly associated with the dispersal of "H. heidelbergensis" and behavioural shifts to cope with the cold climate. Such occupation becomes much more frequent after 500,000 years ago.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In comparison to Early Pleistocene "H. erectus"/"ergaster", Middle Pleistocene humans have a much more modern human-like face. The nasal opening is set completely vertically in the skull, and the anterior nasal sill can be crested or sometimes a prominent spine. The incisive canals (on the roof of the mouth) open near the teeth, and are orientated like those of more recent human species. The frontal bone is broad, the parietal bone can be expanded, and the squamous part of temporal bone is high and arched, which could all be related to increasing brain size. The sphenoid bone features a spine extending downwards, and the articular tubercle on the underside of the skull can jut out prominently as the surface behind the jaw hinge is otherwise quite flat.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 2004, Rightmire estimated the brain volumes of ten Middle Pleistocene humans variously attributable to "H. heidelbergensis"—from Kabwe, Bodo, Ndutu, Dali, Jinniushan, Petralona, Steinheim, Arago, and two from SH. This set gives an average volume of about 1,206 cc, ranging from 1,100 to 1,390 cc. He also averaged the brain volumes of 30 "H. erectus"/"ergaster" specimens, spanning nearly 1.5 million years from across East Asia and Africa, as 973 cc, and thus concluded a significant jump in brain size, though conceded brain size was extremely variable ranging from 727 to 1,231 cc depending on the time period, geographic region, and even between individuals within the same population (the last one probably due to notable sexual dimorphism with males much bigger than females). In comparison, for modern humans, brain size averages 1,270 cc for males and 1,130 cc for females; and for Neanderthals 1,600 cc for males and 1,300 cc for females.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 2009, palaeontologists Aurélien Mounier, François Marchal and Silvana Condemi published the first differential diagnosis of "H. heidelbergensis" using the Mauer mandible, as well as material from Tighennif, Algeria; SH, Spain; Arago, France; and Montmaurin, France. They listed the diagnostic traits as: a reduced chin, a notch in the submental space (near the throat), parallel upper and lower boundaries of the mandible in side-view, several mental foramina (small holes for blood vessels) near the cheek teeth, a horizontal retromolar space (a gap behind the molars), a gutter between the molars and the ramus (which juts up to connect with the skull), an overall long jaw, a deep fossa (a depression) for the masseter muscle (which closes the jaw), a small gonial angle (the angle between the body of the mandible and the ramus), an extensive planum alveolare (the distance from the frontmost tooth socket to the back of the jaw), a developed planum triangulare (near the jaw hinge), and a mylohyoid line originating at the level of the third molar.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Trends in body size through the Middle Pleistocene are obscured due to a general lack of limb bones and non-skull (post-cranial) remains. Based on the lengths of various long bones, the SH humans averaged roughly for males and for females, with maximums of respectively and . The height of a female partial skeleton from Jinniushan is estimated to have been quite tall at roughly in life, much taller than the SH females. A tibia from Kabwe is typically estimated to have been , among the tallest Middle Pleistocene specimens, but it is possible this individual was either unusually large or had a much longer tibia to femur ratio than expected.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: If these specimens are representative of their respective continents, they would suggest that above-medium to tall people were prevalent throughout the Middle Pleistocene Old World. If this is the case, then most all populations of any archaic human species would have generally averaged to in height. Early modern humans were notably taller, with the Skhul and Qafzeh remains averaging for males and for females, an average of , possibly to increase the energy-efficiency of long-distance travel with longer legs.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: A conspicuously massive proximal (upper half) femur was recovered from Berg Aukas Mine, Namibia, about east of Grootfontein. It was originally estimated to have been from a male as much as in life, but its exorbitant size is now proposed to be the consequence of an extraordinarily vigorous early-life activity level while an otherwise ordinary person was maturing. If so, the individual from the Berg Aukas Mine would probably have had proportions similar to Kabwe 1.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The human body plan had evolved in "H. ergaster", and characterises all later "Homo" species, but among the more derived members there are 2 distinct morphs: A narrow-chested and gracile build like modern humans, and a broader-chested and robust build like Neanderthals. It was once assumed that the Neanderthal build was unique to Neanderthals based on the gracile "H. ergaster" partial skeleton "KNM WT-15000" ("Turkana Boy"), but the discovery of some Middle Pleistocene skeletal elements (though generally fragmentary and few and far between) seems to suggest Middle Pleistocene humans overall featured a more Neanderthal morph. Thus, the modern human morph may be unique to modern humans, evolving quite recently. This is most clearly demonstrated in the exceptionally well-preserved SH assemblage. Based on skull robustness, it was assumed Middle Pleistocene humans featured a high degree of sexual dimorphism, but the SH humans demonstrate a modern humanlike level.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The SH humans and other Middle Pleistocene "Homo" have a more basal pelvis and femur (more similar to earlier "Homo" than Neanderthals). The overall broad and elliptical pelvis is broader, taller and thicker (expanded anteroposteriorly) than those of Neanderthals or modern humans, and retains an anteriorly located acetabulocristal buttress (which supports the iliac crests during hip abduction), a well defined supraacetabular groove (between the hip socket and the ilium), and a thin and rectangular superior pubic ramus (as opposed to the thick, stout one in modern humans). The foot of all archaic humans has a taller trochlea of the ankle bone, making the ankle more flexible (specifically dorsiflexion and plantarflexion).


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: On the left side of its face, an SH skull (Skull 5) presents the oldest-known case of orbital cellulitis (eye infection which developed from an abscess in the mouth). This probably caused sepsis, killing the individual.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: A male SH pelvis (Pelvis 1), based on joint degeneration, may have lived for more than 45 years, making him one of the oldest examples of this demographic in the human fossil record. The frequency of 45-plus individuals gradually increases with time, but has overall remained quite low throughout the Palaeolithic. He similarly had the age-related maladies lumbar kyphosis (excessive curving of the lumbar vertebrae of the lower back), L5–S1 spondylolisthesis (misalignment of the last lumbar vertebra with the first sacral vertebra), and Baastrup disease on L4 and 5 (enlargement of the spinous processes). These would have produced lower back pain, significantly limiting movement, and may be evidence of group care.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: An adolescent SH skull (Cranium 14) was diagnosed with lambdoid single suture craniosynostosis (immature closing of the left lambdoid suture, leading to skull deformities as development continued). This is a rare condition, occurring in less than 6 out of every 200,000 individuals in modern humans. The individual died around the age of 10, suggesting it was not abandoned due its deformity as has been done in historical times, and received the same quality of care as any other child.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Enamel hypoplasia on the teeth is used to determine bouts of nutritional stress. At a rate of 40% for the SH humans, this is significantly higher than exhibited in the earlier South African hominin "Paranthropus robustus" at Swartkrans (30.6%) or Sterkfontein (12.1%). Nonetheless, Neanderthals suffered even higher rates and more intense bouts of hypoplasia, but it is unclear if this is because Neanderthals were less capable of exploiting natural resources, or because they lived in harsher environments. A peak at 3½ years of age may be correlated with weaning age. In Neanderthals this peak was at 4 years, and many modern hunter gatherers also wean at about 4 years of age.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Middle Pleistocene communities in general seem to have eaten big game at a higher frequency than predecessors, with meat becoming an essential dietary component. Diet could overall be varied—for example the inhabitants of Terra Amata seem to have been mainly eating deer, but also elephants, boar, ibex, rhino and aurochs. African sites typically commonly yield bovine and horse bones. Though carcasses may have simply been scavenged, some Afro-European sites show specific targeting of a single species, which more likely indicates active hunting; for example: Olorgesailie, Kenya, which has yielded over 50 to 60 individual baboons ("Theropithecus oswaldi"); and Torralba and Ambrona in Spain which have an abundance of elephant bones (though also rhino and large hoofed mammals). The increase in meat subsistence could indicate the development of group hunting strategies in the Middle Pleistocene. For instance, at Torralba and Ambrona, the animals may have been run into swamplands before being killed, entailing encircling and driving by a large group of hunters in a coordinated and organised attack. Exploitation of aquatic environments is generally quite lacking, despite some sites being in close proximity to the ocean, lakes or rivers.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Plants were probably also frequently consumed, including seasonally available ones, but the extent of their exploitation is unclear as they do not fossilise as well as animal bones. Assuming a diet heavy in lean meat, an individual would have needed a high carbohydrate intake to prevent protein poisoning, such as by eating typically abundant underground storage organs, tree bark, berries, or nuts. The Schöningen site, Germany, has over 200 plants in the vicinity which are either edible raw or when cooked.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Upper Palaeolithic modern humans are well known for having etched engravings seemingly with symbolic value. As of 2018, only 27 Middle and Lower Palaeolithic objects have been postulated to have symbolic etching, out of which some have been refuted as having been caused by natural or otherwise non-symbolic phenomena (such as the fossilisation or excavation processes). The Lower Palaeolithic ones are: three 380,000-year-old pebbles from Terra Amata; a 250,000-year-old pebble from Markkleeberg, Germany; 18 roughly 200,000-year-old pebbles from Lazaret (near Terra Amata); a roughly 200,000-year-old lithic from Grotte de l'Observatoire, Monaco; a 370,000-year-old bone from Bilzingsleben, Germany; and a 200- to 130-thousand-year-old pebble from Baume Bonne, France.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In the mid-19th century, French archaeologist Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes began excavation at St. Acheul, Amiens, France, (the area where the Acheulian was defined), and, in addition to hand axes, reported perforated sponge fossils ("Porosphaera globularis") which he considered to have been decorative beads. This claim was completely ignored. In 1894, English archaeologist Worthington George Smith discovered 200 similar perforated fossils in Bedfordshire, England, and also speculated that their function was beads, though he made no reference to Boucher de Perthes' find, possibly because he was unaware of it. In 2005, Robert Bednarik reexamined the material, and concluded that—because all the Bedfordshire "P. globularis" fossils are sub-spherical and range in diameter, despite this species having a highly variable shape—they were deliberately chosen. They appear to have been bored through completely or almost completely by some parasitic creature (i. e., through natural processes), and were then percussed on what would have been the more closed-off end to fully open the hole. He also found wear facets which he speculated were begotten from clacking against other beads when they were strung together and worn as a necklace. In 2009, Solange Rigaud, Francisco d'Errico and colleagues noticed that the modified areas are lighter in colour than the unmodifed, suggesting they were inflicted much more recently such as during excavation. They were also unconvinced that the fossils could be confidently associated with the Acheulian artefacts from the sites, and suggested that—as an alternative to archaic human activity—apparent size-selection could have been caused by either natural geological processes or 19th-century collectors favouring this specific form.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Early modern humans and late Neanderthals (the latter especially after 60,000 years ago) made wide use of red ochre for presumably symbolic purposes as it produces a blood-like colour, though ochre can also have a functional medicinal application. Beyond these two species, ochre usage is recorded at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where two red ochre lumps have been found; Ambrona where an ochre slab was trimmed down into a specific shape; and Terra Amata where 75 ochre pieces were heated to achieve a wide colour range from yellow to red-brown to red. These may exemplify early and isolated instances of colour preference and colour categorisation, and such practices may not have been normalised yet.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In 2006, Eudald Carbonell and Marina Mosquera suggested the SH hominins were buried by people rather than being the victims of some catastrophic event such as a cave-in, because young children and infants are absent which would be unexpected if this were a single and complete family unit. The SH humans are conspicuously associated with only a single stone tool, a carefully crafted hand axe made of high-quality quartzite (rarely used in the region), and so Carbonell and Mosquera postulated this was purposefully and symbolically placed with the bodies as some kind of grave good. Supposed evidence of symbolic graves would not surface for another 300,000 years.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The Lower Palaeolithic (Early Stone Age) comprises the Oldowan which was replaced by the Acheulian, which is characterised by the production of mostly symmetrical hand axes. The Acheulian has a timespan of about a million years, and such technological stagnation has typically been ascribed to comparatively limited cognitive abilities which significantly reduced innovative capacity, such as a deficit in cognitive fluidity, working memory, or a social system compatible with apprenticeship. Nonetheless, the Acheulian does seem to subtly change over time, and is typically split up into Early Acheulian and Late Acheulian, the latter becoming especially popular after 600 to 500 thousand years ago. Late Acheulian technology never crossed over east of the Movius Line into East Asia, which is generally believed to be due to either some major deficit in cultural transmission (namely smaller population size in the East) or simply preservation bias as far fewer stone tool assemblages are found east of the line.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The transition is indicated by the production of smaller, thinner, and more symmetrical hand axes (though thicker, less refined ones were still produced). At the 500,000-year-old Boxgrove site in England—an exceptionally well-preserved site with abundance of tool remains—thinning may have been produced by striking the hand axe near-perpendicularly with a soft hammer, possible with the invention of prepared platforms for tool making. The Boxgrove knappers also left behind large lithic flakes leftover from making hand axes, possibly with the intention of recycling them into other tools later. Late Acheulian sites elsewhere pre-prepared lithic cores ("Large Flake Blanks," LFB) in a variety of ways before shaping them into tools, making prepared platforms unnecessary. LFB Acheulian spreads out of Africa into West and South Asia before a million years ago and is present in Southern Europe after 600,000 years ago, but northern Europe (and the Levant after 700,000 years ago) made use of soft hammers as they mainly made use of small, thick flint nodules. The first prepared platforms in Africa come from the 450,000-year-old Fauresmith industry, transitional between the Early Stone Age (Acheulian) and the Middle Stone Age.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: With either method, knappers (tool makers) would have had to have produced some item indirectly related to creating the desired product (hierarchical organisation), which could represent a major cognitive development. Experiments with modern humans have shown that platform preparation cannot be learned through purely observational learning, unlike earlier techniques, and could be indicative of well developed teaching methods as well as self-regulated learning. At Boxgrove, the knappers used not only stone but also bone and antler to make hammers, and the use of such a wide range of raw materials could speak to advanced planning capabilities as stoneworking requires a much different skillset to work and gather materials for than boneworking.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The Kapthurin Formation, Kenya, has yielded the oldest evidence of blade and bladelet technology, dating to 545 to 509 thousand years ago. This technology is rare even in the Middle Palaeolithic, and is typically associated with Upper Palaeolithic modern humans. It is unclear if this is part of a long blade-making tradition, or if blade technology was lost and reinvented several times by multiple different human species.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: Despite apparent pushes into colder climates, evidence of fire is scarce in the archaeological record until 400 to 300 thousand years ago. Though it is possible fire remnants simply degraded, long and overall undisturbed occupation sequences such as at Arago or Gran Dolina conspicuously lack convincing evidence of fire usage. This pattern could possibly indicate the invention of ignition technology or improved fire maintenance techniques at this time, and that fire was not an integral part of people's lives before then in Europe. In Africa, on the other hand, humans may have been able to frequently scavenge fire as early as 1.6 million years ago from natural wildfires, which occur much more often on Africa, thus possibly (more or less) regularly using fire. The oldest established continuous fire site beyond Africa is the 780,000-year-old Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: In Europe, evidence of constructed dwelling structures—classified as firm surface huts with solid foundations built in areas mostly sheltered from the weather—has been recorded since the Cromerian Interglacial, the earliest example a 700,000-year-old stone foundation from Přezletice, Czech Republic. This dwelling probably featured a vaulted roof made of thick branches or thin poles, supported by a foundation of big rocks and earth. Other such dwellings have been postulated to have existed during or following the Holstein Interglacial (which began 424,000 years ago) in Bilzingsleben, Germany; Terra Amata, France; and Fermanville and Saint-Germain-des-Vaux in Normandy. These were probably occupied during the winter, and, averaging only in area, they were probably only used for sleeping in, while other activities (including firekeeping) seem to have been done outside. Less-permanent tent technology may have been present in Europe in the Lower Paleolithic.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The appearance of repeated fire usage—earliest in Europe from Beeches Pit, England, and Schöningen, Germany—roughly coincides with hafting technology (attaching stone points to spears) best exemplified by the Schöningen spears. These nine wooden spears and spear fragments—in addition to a lance, and a double-pointed stick—date to 300,000 years ago and were preserved along a lakeside. The spears vary from in diameter, and may have been long, overall similar to present day competitive javelins. The spears were made of soft spruce wood, except for spear 4 which was (also soft) pine wood. This contrasts with the Clacton spearhead from Clacton-on-Sea, England, perhaps roughly 100,000 years older, which was made of hard yew wood. The Schöningen spears may have had a range of up to , though would have been more effective short range within about , making them effective distance weapons either against prey or predators. Besides these two localities, the only other site which provides solid evidence of European spear technology is the 120,000-year-old Lehringen site, Germany, where a yew spear was apparently lodged in an elephant. In Africa, 500,000-year-old points from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa, may have been hafted onto spears. Judging by indirect evidence, a horse scapula from the 500,000-year-old Boxgrove shows a puncture wound consistent with a spear wound. Evidence of hafting (in both Europe and Africa) becomes much more common after 300,000 years.


title: Homo heidelbergensis

text: The SH humans had a modern humanlike hyoid bone (which supports the tongue), and middle ear bones capable of finely distinguishing frequencies within the range of normal human speech. Judging by dental striations, they seem to have been predominantly right-handed, and handedness is related to the lateralisation of brain function, typically associated with language processing in modern humans. So, it is postulated that this population was speaking with some early form of language. Nonetheless, these traits do not absolutely prove the existence of language and humanlike speech, and its presence so early in time despite such anatomical arguments has been primarily opposed by cognitive scientist Philip Lieberman.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first woman to have held the Brazilian presidency and had previously served as chief of staff to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte. She became a socialist in her youth and after the 1964 coup d'état joined left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured, tortured, and jailed from 1970 to 1972.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: After her release, Rousseff rebuilt her life in Porto Alegre with her husband Carlos Araújo. They both helped to found the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Rio Grande do Sul, and participated in several of the party's electoral campaigns. She became the treasury secretary of Porto Alegre under Alceu Collares, and later Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul under both Collares and Olívio Dutra. In 2001, after an internal dispute in the Dutra cabinet, she left the PDT and joined the Workers' Party (PT).


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 2002, Rousseff became an energy policy advisor to presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who on winning the election invited her to become his minister of energy. Chief of Staff José Dirceu resigned in 2005 in a political crisis triggered by the Mensalão corruption scandal. Rousseff became chief of staff and remained in that post until 31 March 2010, when she stepped down to run for president. She was elected in a run-off on 31 October 2010, beating Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) candidate José Serra. On 26 October 2014 she won a narrow second-round victory over Aécio Neves, also of the PSDB.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Impeachment proceedings against Rousseff began in the Chamber of Deputies on 3 December 2015. On 12 May 2016, the Senate of Brazil suspended President Rousseff's powers and duties for up to six months or until the Senate decided whether to remove her from office or to acquit her. Vice President Michel Temer assumed her powers and duties as acting president of Brazil during her suspension. On 31 August 2016, the Senate voted 61–20 to convict, finding Rousseff guilty of breaking budgetary laws and removed her from office.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 5 August 2018, the PT officially launched Rousseff's candidacy for a seat in the Federal Senate from the state of Minas Gerais. Despite leading in the polls in the run-up to the election, Rousseff finished fourth in the final vote and was defeated for her Senate run.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Dilma Vana Rousseff was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, on 14 December 1947, to Bulgarian lawyer and entrepreneur Pedro Rousseff (born Petar Rusеv, , 1900–1962) and schoolteacher Dilma Jane da Silva (26 June 1924 – 13 July 2019). Her father was born in Gabrovo, in the Principality of Bulgaria, and was a friend of the Nobel Prize-nominated Bulgarian poet Elisaveta Bagryana. As an active member of the Bulgarian Communist Party, banned in 1924, Petar Rusev fled Bulgaria in 1929 to escape political persecution; he settled in France. He arrived in Brazil in the 1930s, already widowed (he left behind his son Lyuben-Kamen, who died in 2007), but soon moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He returned to Brazil several years later, settling in São Paulo, where he succeeded in business. Petar Rusev adapted his first name to Portuguese (Pedro) and the last to French (Rousseff). During a trip to Uberaba, he met Dilma Jane da Silva, a young schoolteacher born in Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, and raised in Minas Gerais, where her parents were ranchers. The two married and settled in Belo Horizonte, where they had three children: Igor, Dilma Vana, and Zana Lúcia (who died in 1977). Igor Rousseff, Dilma's elder brother, is a lawyer.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Pedro Rousseff was a contractor for Mannesmann steel in addition to building and selling real estate. The family lived in a large house, had three servants, and maintained European habits. The children had a classical education with both piano and French lessons. After they overcame the initial resistance of the community to accepting foreigners, the family attended traditional clubs and schools.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff was enrolled in preschool at the Colégio Izabela Hendrix and primary school at Colégio Nossa Senhora de Sion, a girls' boarding school run by nuns, who primarily taught in French. Her father died in 1962, leaving behind about fifteen properties.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1964 Rousseff left the conservative Colégio Sion and joined the Central State High School, a co-ed public school where the students often protested against the dictatorship that had been established after the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. In 1967 she joined Worker's Politics (), an organization founded in 1961 as a spinoff of the Brazilian Socialist Party. Its members found themselves divided over methods; some wanted to advocate for the election of a constituent assembly, but others advocated an armed struggle. Rousseff joined the second group, which became the National Liberation Command (). According to , leader of Colina in 1968 who taught Marxism to Rousseff in high school, she chose armed struggle after reading "Revolution inside the Revolution" by Régis Debray, a French intellectual who had moved to Cuba and become a friend of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Heringer says that "the book inflamed everybody, including Dilma".


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: During that period, Rousseff met Cláudio Galeno Linhares, a brother-in-arms five years her senior. Galeno, who had joined POLOP in 1962, had served in the Army, participating in the uprising of sailors against the military coup, for which he had been arrested in Ilha das Cobras. They married in 1968 in a civil ceremony, after dating for one year.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff participated in COLINA and advocated Marxist politics among labour union members and as editor of the newspaper "The Piquet". According to the magazine "Piauí", she handled weapons. Gilberto Vasconcelos, a former fellow militant, has stated that she "has never … practiced an act of violence".


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In early 1969 the Minas Gerais branch of Colina had only a dozen militants, little money, and few weapons. Its activities boiled down to four bank robberies, some stolen cars and two bombings, with no casualties. On 14 January, after some arrests during a bank robbery, they gathered to debate what to do to release them from jail. At dawn, the police invaded the group's house and they responded by using a machine gun, which killed two policemen and wounded another.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff and Galeno then began sleeping each night in a different location, since their apartment had been visited by one of those arrested. They returned home secretly to destroy documents so when in March 1969, the police searched the apartment, no documents were found. They stayed in Belo Horizonte a few more weeks trying to reorganize Colina, but had to avoid their parents' houses, since these were watched by the military. (Rousseff's family had no knowledge of her participation in underground activities). In addition, Galeno had to undergo facial plastic surgery or a similar procedure (although he denies this) after a sketch of him was released for participating in a bank robbery. The organization ordered them to move to Rio de Janeiro since it was unsafe to remain. Rousseff was 21 and had just finished her fourth semester at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais School of Economics.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: There were many people from Minas Gerais in the Rio de Janeiro cell of Colina (including now-former Belo Horizonte mayor Fernando Pimentel, then 18 years old), but the organization had no shelter for them. Rousseff and Galeno stayed briefly with Rousseff's aunt, who thought that they were on vacation. They moved to a small hotel, then to an apartment, until Galeno was sent by the organization to Porto Alegre. Rousseff remained in Rio and helped the organization, attending meetings and transported weapons and money, according to "piauí". She met Rio Grande do Sul-born lawyer Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo, then 31 years old, at a meeting; the two developed an attraction to one another. Araújo headed a dissident group of the Brazilian Communist Party () and sheltered Galeno in Porto Alegre. Rousseff's breakup with Galeno was friendly. As Galeno said, "in that difficult situation, we had no prospect of being a regular couple".


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Araújo, son of a prominent labor defense lawyer, had joined the PCB early. He had traveled through Latin America, met Castro and Che Guevara, and been imprisoned for several months in 1964. He joined the armed struggle after the issue of AI-5 by the dictatorship in 1968. In early 1969, he began to discuss the merger of his group with Colina and Popular Revolutionary Vanguard (), led by Carlos Lamarca. Rousseff attended meetings about the merger, formalized in two conferences in Mongaguá, thus leading to the creation of Revolutionary Armed Vanguard Palmares (). Rousseff and Araújo attended these conferences. So did Lamarca, who thought that Rousseff was a "stuck-up intellectual" because she defended revolution through political engagement of the working class, as opposed to VPR's military-based sense of revolution.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Carlos Araújo was chosen as one of the six leaders of VAR Palmares, a "political-military organization of Marxist-Leninist partisan orientation which aims to fulfill the tasks of the revolutionary war and the establishment of the working class party, in order to seize power and build socialism."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: According to Maurício Lopes Lima, a former member of (OBAN) – a para-legal structure which included the intelligence and torture services of the Armed Forces—Rousseff was the primary leader of VAR Palmares, and he received reports calling her "one of the brains" of the revolution. Police commissioner Newton Fernandes, who investigated the clandestine organization in São Paulo and profiled dozens of their members, said that Rousseff was one of the principal masterminds. The attorney who prosecuted the organization called her "Joan of Arc of subversion", saying that she led strikes and advised bank robberies. She was also dubbed "the she-pope of subversion", a "political criminal" and a "female figure of sadly notable aspect". Rousseff ridicules such comparison, stating that she does not even remember many of the actions attributed to her. According to her former comrade and current colleague, Environment Minister Carlos Minc, her role in the group was sensationalized. "Because she is a very important person, they'll say anything about her."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff has sometimes been described as the mastermind of the theft of a safe belonging to former governor of São Paulo, Ademar de Barros. The action was carried out on 18 June 1969, in Rio de Janeiro, and netted 2.5 million U.S. dollars. It became the most spectacular and profitable action of the armed struggle. Carlos Minc has denied the participation of Rousseff in the event, saying that the widespread version that she was the leader of the organization is rather exaggerated, since she was merely a member of no distinction. On at least three different occasions Rousseff herself also denied participating in the event. Testimonials and police reports indicated that Rousseff was responsible for managing the money from the robbery, paying the salaries of the militants, finding a shelter for the group, and buying a Volkswagen Beetle. Rousseff only remembers purchasing the car, and doubts that she was the one responsible for managing the money.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1969, VAR Palmares allegedly planned the kidnapping of Antônio Delfim Netto, a symbol of the "Brazilian Miracle" and the most powerful civilian in the federal government at the time. This would have been carried out in December according to the book "Os Carbonários", written by Alfredo Sirkis in 1981. Antonio Roberto Espinosa, former head of both VPR and VAR Palmares, was reported to have said that Rousseff was one of the five members of the organization's leadership aware of it. The kidnapping did not take place because the members of the organization were captured just weeks before. Rousseff emphatically denies that she was aware of the plan and doubts that anyone involved really remembers much about it. She also said that Espinosa fantasized about the event. After learning about the quotes that were being attributed to him, Espinosa denied stating that Rousseff knew about the plan, which was vague in any case. He said that Rousseff never participated or planned any paramilitary actions; her role was only political.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Even with large amounts of money, the organization failed to maintain its unity. At a conference held in Teresópolis between August and September 1969, there was a major dispute between those who supported the armed struggle and those who advocated working with the masses. Rousseff was in the second group. While the first group split into the paramilitary VPR, led by Lamarca, the second—including Rousseff—continued as VAR Palmares. There was a dispute over the money and weapons. After the split, Rousseff was sent to São Paulo, where she was in charge of keeping her group's weapons safe. She avoided the risk of keeping them in apartments by moving with a friend (Maria Celeste Martins, who would become her chief of staff assistant decades later) to a simple boarding house in the eastern zone of the city, where they hid the weapons under their beds.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: José Olavo Leite Ribeiro, who met three times a week with Rousseff, was captured by the military. As Ribeiro reported, after a day of torture, he revealed the place where he would meet with another militant, in a bar on Rua Augusta in São Paulo. On 16 January 1970, he was forced to go to the bar accompanied by undercover policemen, where his colleague was captured and, when they were preparing to leave, 23 year-old Rousseff unexpectedly arrived. Realizing that something was wrong, Rousseff tried to leave the place without being noticed. The officers suspected Rousseff and searched her, discovering that she was armed. "If it was not for the gun, it is possible that she could have escaped," says Ribeiro. Rousseff was considered a big enough catch that a military prosecutor labeled her the "Joan of Arc" of the guerrilla movement.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff was taken to the OBAN headquarters, the same place where Vladimir Herzog would be tortured and killed five years later. She was allegedly tortured for 22 days by punching, ferule, and electric shock devices. As Maria Luisa Belloque, a cellmate, said "Dilma was shocked even with car wiring." Some ex-military officers have dismissed Rousseff's account, saying that she could not have survived that extent of torture. Later, Rousseff denounced the torture she suffered in court proceedings, citing even the names of those who tortured her, such as Army Captain Benoni de Arruda Albernaz, mentioned by several other witnesses. Although she revealed the locations of some militants during torture interrogation, Rousseff managed to preserve the identities of Carlos Araújo (who would be arrested several months later) and Maria Celeste Martins. Rousseff's name was on a list found at Carlos Lamarca's home, on a list of the prisoners who would get priority in exchange for hostages, but she was never exchanged and served out her sentence.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Carlos Araújo was arrested on 12 August 1970. After Rousseff was captured, he had an affair with actress and fellow militant Bete Mendes. After his arrest, he met Rousseff on several occasions, during journeys regarding the military lawsuits both were being prosecuted for. For a few months they were even in the same prison in São Paulo, where during conjugal visits they reconciled, planning to resume married life after being released from jail. Rousseff was convicted in the first instance to six years in prison. She had already served three years when the Supreme Military Court reduced her sentence to two years and a month. She also had her political rights suspended for eighteen years.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In December 2006, the Special Commission for Reparation of the Human Rights Office for the State of Rio de Janeiro approved a request for indemnification by Rousseff and eighteen other prisoners in law enforcement agencies of the São Paulo state government in the 1970s. In her request, a pivotal witness was Vânia Abrantes, who was in the same police car that transferred her from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro (Vânia was Araújo's girlfriend when he and Rousseff began to date). Rousseff also requested compensation in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, since she was arrested in São Paulo but taken for interrogation in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Rio de Janeiro. She also seeks damages from the federal government. The total compensation figure paid to victims of political persecution may be up to 72,000 reais. However, as her advisors have declared, the indemnification has a symbolic value to her, and Rousseff demanded the requests be tried only after her departure from public office.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 5 April 2009, an alleged criminal record of Rousseff containing notes about various crimes allegedly committed by her was published on the front page of "Folha de S.Paulo" published. The document would have been part of the file of the Department of Political and Social Order (), the military regime's political police. Rousseff questioned the veracity of the file, claiming that it was a forged document, which led the newspaper to declare that it had not obtained the document from DOPS' file, but rather via e-mail and, thus, could not guarantee its veracity. The record can be found on a far right-wing website which supports the regime.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff left jail at the end of 1972. She was ten kilograms (22 pounds) thinner and had acquired thyroid disease. She spent some time recovering with family in Minas Gerais, visited an aunt in São Paulo, then moved to Porto Alegre, where Carlos Araújo was finishing the last months of his sentence. She stayed in her in-laws' house, from which they could see the prison where Araújo was held. Rousseff frequently visited her partner, bringing him newspapers and political books disguised as novels. The Presídio da Ilha das Pedras Brancas was deactivated, and Araújo served the remainder of his sentence in the Presídio Central. Prominent lawyer Afrânio Araújo, Carlos' father, died in June 1974, prompting his friends to pressure the regime for the release of Carlos, which happened just a week later.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Punished for subversion in accordance with decree number 477, considered the AI-5 of universities, Rousseff was expelled from the Minas Gerais Federal University and barred from resuming her studies at that university in 1973. She decided to attend a preparatory course in order to take the vestibular exam in economics at the Rio Grande do Sul Federal University. She was admitted to the university and graduated in 1977, this time not participating actively in the students' movement there. The year before, in March 1976, she gave birth to her only child, daughter Paula Rousseff Araújo. After graduation, she got her first paid job after serving her prison sentence as an intern at the Foundation of Economics and Statistics (), an organization linked to the government of Rio Grande do Sul.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Her political activism, this time within the law, resumed at the Institute of Social and Political Studies () linked to the only legalized opposition party, the Democratic Movement (MDB). Even though she was not affiliated with the party, Rousseff organized debates at the institute, which received lectures from scholars such as Francisco de Oliveira, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Francisco Weffort. In 1976, Rousseff and Araújo worked for the campaign of Glênio Peres, an MDB candidate for the city council. Although he was elected, Peres' term was revoked for denouncing the regime's torture in a speech. In November 1977, Rousseff was reported by the newspaper "O Estado de S. Paulo" as one of the 97 "subversives" infiltrated in the public administration. The list was made by resigned Army Minister, Silvio Frota, who had summarized the political background of those he listed. Rousseff, characterized as a Colina and VAR Palmares militant "cohabitating with the subversive Carlos Araújo", was discharged from her job at the FEE, although she was later pardoned.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1978, Rousseff attended the Campinas State University, with the intention of receiving a master's degree in economics. At that time, she began attending a discussion group formed by other VAR Palmares former members, such as Rui Falcão, Antonio Roberto Espinosa, and eventually Carlos Araújo. Meeting once every three months, the group lasted a couple of years. They would read the works of Karl Marx, Nicos Poulantzas, and Louis Althusser, discussing what would be the right moment to resume their political activity. Rousseff declared that she "attended the master's degree program", but did not finish it, failing to present her thesis. "That's why I returned to university to pursue a doctorate. And then I became minister and did not finish the doctorate", she said. Her academic credentials have been the subject of controversy as her official biography listed these master's and doctoral degrees that she had never earned. She was, however, twice enrolled in the graduate program in economics at the State University of Campinas, without ever fulfilling the requirements for those degrees.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1968 she married journalist Cláudio Galeno de Magalhães Linhares, who introduced 20-year-old Rousseff to the underground resistance movement against the dictatorship. In the early 1970s, Rousseff separated from Galeno and started a relationship with Carlos Franklin Paixão de Araújo. She legally divorced Galeno in 1981.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff and Araújo have a daughter named Paula Rousseff de Araújo born in 1976. Rousseff divorced Araújo in 2000.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: According to Rousseff, she enjoys history and is interested in opera. In the early 1990s, she enrolled in a course in Greek theater taught by playwright Ivo Bender. Greek mythology then became an obsession for her, and, influenced by Penelope, she decided to learn how to embroider. Her favorite actress is Fernanda Montenegro. Her website claims she is an avid reader, citing Machado de Assis, Guimarães Rosa, Cecília Meireles, and Adélia Prado as her favorite authors.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: She understands English very well when spoken slowly and can speak Spanish and limited amounts of French.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Paula Rousseff, born on 26 March 1976, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, is the only daughter of Dilma Rousseff and her former husband, Carlos Araújo. Paula is a law graduate and holds the office of Labor Prosecutor in Porto Alegre.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 9 September 2010, Paula Rousseff gave birth to Rousseff's first grandchild, a boy named Gabriel Rousseff Covolo, in the city of Porto Alegre, during the 2010 presidential campaign of her mother. After the last debate with four other candidates, on 30 September 2010, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was aired on national TV, Rousseff flew to Porto Alegre for the christening of Gabriel in the Roman Catholic Cathedral on 1 October 2010.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: At a press conference on 25 April 2009, Rousseff revealed that she was undergoing treatment to remove an early-stage axillar lymphoma, a cancer in the lymphatic system, which was detected in her left armpit during a routine mammogram. It was diagnosed as a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an intermediate-grade type, but her chances of being cured were up to 90%. She had curative chemotherapy treatment for four months.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In mid-May 2009, she was hospitalized in the Hospital Sírio-Libanês in São Paulo, with severe pains in her legs. The diagnosis was a myopathy, a muscle inflammation resulting from the cancer treatment. In early September that same year, she revealed she had completed her radiotherapy treatment, claiming to be cured, later confirmed by her doctors. She began to wear a wig due to hair loss caused by the chemotherapy.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: After seven months of wearing a wig, Rousseff wore her natural dark brown hair at the 3rd Human Rights Program launch on 21 December 2009. She had announced in November that she would retire her wig as soon as her hair became more even. She said it was still "full of holes", which was why she "couldn't take [the wig] off there in Copenhagen, Denmark". She first publicly admitted to wearing a wig in May of that year, when she jokingly referred to it as a "basic little wig".


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Although Rousseff states that her political thinking has changed drastically – from Marxism to pragmatic capitalism – she remains proud of her radical roots.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff's views are mostly anti abortion, supporting it only for pregnancies which endanger the life of the mother or are the result of rape, cases in which the current Brazilian legislation allows women to terminate their pregnancies. However, she was criticized by sectors of the Catholic Church in Brazil and other religious groups, due to her past support for the legalization of abortion. This was also a main target of criticism by José Serra's campaign as well as the newsmagazine "Veja", which emphasized Rousseff's past and current positions on its cover. The subject only faded away from the news after the information became public that José Serra's wife, Monica Serra, had reportedly had an abortion in her youth


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: When asked about the criminal prosecution against Flamengo goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza, accused of killing his former girlfriend Eliza Samudio, Rousseff said that she opposes the death penalty. According to her, "if it were effective, there would not be such crimes in the United States."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff opposes gay marriage, but supports same-sex civil unions. She said, "Marriage is a religious issue. I, as an individual, would never say what a religion should or should not do. We have to respect them." On the subject of same-sex civil union, Rousseff said that "basic civil rights should be recognized within the civil legal framework." She also opposes the decriminalization of illegal drugs, stating that "Brazil today is in no condition to propose the decriminalization of any drug."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: As a member of the Workers' Party, a social-democratic party which opposes Third Way politics, Rousseff was expected to be against privatization and neoliberalism. "The Nation", as an example of this rationale, described Rousseff's victory as a defeat for the Washington Consensus. Rousseff, however, has had an ambiguous stance on issues that involve privatization. She is, for instance, "in favor of granting to private enterprises the construction of new power plants and roads, should it be cheaper to do them through grants than through public works." Additionally, she favored the privatization of airports in order to prepare Brazil's infra-structure for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: She also pledged to deepen the social welfare network inaugurated by the Lula administration, saying that, under her rule, "Brazil will continue to grow, with social inclusion and mobility."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 2014, during the presidential elections, the president, Dilma Rousseff, supported the criminalization of homophobia, citing the "high rate" of acts of violence against homosexuals in the country.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: When the mandatory two-party system ended in the early 1980s, Rousseff participated, along with Carlos Araújo, in Leonel Brizola's efforts to restructure the Brazilian Labor Party (of social-democratic President João Goulart, overthrown by the 1964 coup). After the Supreme Electoral Court gave the name registry to the group linked to Ivete Vargas (Getúlio Vargas' niece), Rousseff and the group linked to Brizola founded the Democratic Labour Party (). Araújo was elected state deputy three times for this party, in 1982, 1986, and 1990. He was also the party's candidate for Porto Alegre mayor twice, losing to Workers' Party members Olívio Dutra in 1988, and Tarso Genro in 1992. Rousseff got her second job in the mid-1980s as an adviser for the PDT members of the Rio Grande do Sul Legislative Assembly.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff and Araújo devoted themselves to Alceu Collares' campaign for mayor of Porto Alegre in 1985. Much of his campaign platform and government plan was prepared at their home. After elected, Collares appointed Rousseff as the municipal Secretary of Treasury; this was her first job in the executive branch. According to Collares, Araújo influenced him on Rousseff's appointment, but her competence also contributed on his choice.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In the gubernatorial campaign of fellow PDT member Aldo Pinto in 1986, Rousseff had an advising role. Pinto's running mate was Nelson Marchezan, one of the most prominent civilians during the Brazilian military government. They would be defeated by the PMDB candidate Pedro Simon. Twenty years later, in an interview, Rousseff attempted to justify the controversial alliance: "Marchezan was a leader of the dictatorship, but he was never an "" (enraged). The Marchezan wing was the wing of the radicalized small ("rural") owners. And he was an ethical guy."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff remained as Treasury Secretary until 1988, when she stepped out to dedicate herself in Araújo's campaign for mayor of Porto Alegre. She was replaced by Políbio Braga, which says that Rousseff persuaded him not to take office. She would have said that she could "not control these crazy people" and that she was leaving "before it taints my biography." While Collares remembers Rousseff as an example of competence and public transparency, Braga disagrees, stating that "she did not even leave us a single report, and the Treasury Secretary was a chaos."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Araújo's defeat jettisoned the PDT of the local executive branch. In 1989, however, Rousseff was appointed director-general of the city council, but was dismissed by councilman Valdir Fraga, president of the local legislature, after arriving late for work. As Fraga later said, "I dismissed her because she had a problem with the time clock."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1990, Alceu Collares was elected governor, appointing Rousseff as president of the FEE, where she had been an intern in the 1970s. She remained in office until the end of 1993, when she was appointed Secretary of Energy and Communication through the influence of Carlos Araújo and his group. She remained in office until the end of 1994, the same time when her relationship with Araújo had ended, shaken by the discovery that another woman was pregnant with his child, Rodrigo (born in 1995). They later reconciled and remained together until 2000, when Rousseff moved alone to a rented apartment.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 1995, after the end of Collares' term, Rousseff departed from her political office and returned to the FEE, where she was the editor of the magazine "Economic Indicators" (). It was during this break from public offices that she officially enrolled in the Campinas State University PhD program, in 1998. That same year, the Workers' Party won the Rio Grande do Sul gubernatorial election with the support of PDT in the second round. Once again she was appointed Secretary of Energy, this time by Governor Olívio Dutra. As he later recalled, "I already knew and respected her. I also appointed her because she was in a more left-leaning stance inside the PDT, less populist."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: During the first year of the Dutra administration, the PDT had gained some high-ranking offices, but Brizola felt that his party had very little space in the government, responsible for a tiny portion of the budget. Unable to get more space inside the administration, PDT members of the government were pressured by the party leadership to step down. The formation of the political alliance for the 2000 Porto Alegre mayoral election was also a cause of friction among the two parties. They ended up launching each own a different candidate; PDT's was Collares and PT's was Tarso Genro. Rousseff defended the maintenance of the alliance which had elected Dutra, supporting Genro's candidacy, and claiming she would not accept "neoliberal alliances with the right-wing". Her critics said that she was being hypocritical, once she defended an alliance with Marchezan in the 1986 election. Genro defeated Collares in the second round and Rousseff, among other fellow PDT members, joined the Workers' Party. Brizola accused them of being traitors.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: During Rousseff's management of the Secretariat of Energy in the Dutra administration, the service capacity of the electricity sector rose by 46%. due to an emergency program attended by state and private companies. In January 1999, Rousseff traveled to Brasília in order to alert the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration that if the authorities responsible for the power sector did not invest in generation and transmission of energy, the power cuts that Rio Grande do Sul faced early in her administration would take place in the rest of the country. Therefore, the electricity crisis at the end of the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration affected millions of Brazilians, with the exception of those from the three southern states, where no rationing was imposed, as there was no drought. There was a voluntary energy saving, and Rousseff tried to obtain compensation from the federal government, as it was granted to other regions. The federal government did not grant it, and Rousseff had to compromise with the private sector. According to Pedro Parente, chief of staff during the Cardoso administration, "she was pragmatic, objective and showed that she had a fluid dialogue with the business sector."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: The issues related to the area of energy on the government plan of candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were discussed in meetings coordinated by physicist and nuclear engineer Luiz Pinguelli Rosa. Another highlighted member of the group was Ildo Sauer. Both of them were completely opposed to the privatization of the sector, which was, in their opinion, responsible for the energy problems that the country was facing. Pinguelli invited Rousseff to join the group meetings in June 2001, where she arrived as a shy participant in a team formed by several professors, but soon stood out with her objectivity and good knowledge of the area. However, it was clear for everyone in the group that Pinguelli would become the Minister of Energy if Lula won the election.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: It was a great surprise for everyone that, after elected, Lula chose Rousseff as the incumbent minister. The President elect declared: "Already near 2002, it appears there a comrade with a little computer in her hand. We started debating and I realized she had a differential characteristic from the others who were there, because she came in with the practicality of the assignment of running the Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul. Then I was like: I think I found my Minister here." Another factor which would have weighed heavily on Lula's choice was the sympathy that Antonio Palocci had for Rousseff, recognizing that she would have a much easier dialogue with the private sector than Pinguelli, in addition to her support of the "Carta aos Brasileiros" ("Letter to the Brazilian People"), agreeing with several market friendly changes in the Workers' Party. Dutra said he was consulted by Lula, and praised Rousseff's technical merits while Secretary of Energy during his administration. "I could have weighted the scale in her favor at that time, but from the transition government forward the merit is all hers," he recalled. After her appointment, she became very close to José Dirceu, appointed by Lula as the new chief of staff of Brazil.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Her management of the Ministry was marked by the respect of contracts made by the previous administration, by her efforts to prevent further blackouts and by the implementation of an electric model less concentrated in the hands of the state, differently from what Rosa and Sauer desired. Regarding the free market of energy, Rousseff not only kept it as she expanded it as well. José Luiz Alquéres, president of Light S.A., praised the approach taken by Rousseff, which is, accordind to him, helping the segment as a whole. He criticized, however, the delay in the implementation of the new model, but said that this is the fault of the bureaucratic government machinery. Convinced that urgent investments in power generation were required so that the country would not face a general blackout in 2009, Rousseff entered in a serious clash with then Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, which defended the embargo on several construction sites, concerned with the ecological imbalance that they could cause. Dirceu had to create a team of mediators between the two ministers in order to try to resolve their disputes.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: A close friend of Lula, Pinguelli was appointed as president of Eletrobrás, and found himself at odds with Rousseff on several occasions, considering an early resignation once. He was ironic about Rousseff's alleged mood swings, being quoted as saying that "this lady formats her disk every week." Pinguelli eventually left the federal government in 2004. Mauricio Tolmasquim, a member of the transition government which shared a vision of the energy sector similar to Rousseff's, was invited by her to be the executive secretary of the ministry. He stated that once they got to know each other better, Rousseff started shouting with him occasionally. "It's her way. It's not personal. And in five minutes everything is okay," he said. Sauer, who took over the gas and energy department of Petrobras, also clashed with the minister, who repulsed his ideas of a statist model. Sometimes the clashes between them were so serious that Lula's intervention was necessary. Sauer left the state oil company in 2007. Another one which had disagreements with the minister on energy issues was the former Congressman Luciano Zica. For him, "Dilma is the most democratic person in the world, as long as you agree 100% with her." He recently left PT and joined the Green Party along with Marina Silva.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: After becoming a Minister, Rousseff defended a new industrial policy from the government, ensuring that Petrobras' platforms had a minimum domestic content, what could generate 30 thousand new jobs in the country. She argued that it was unthinkable that a billion dollar building was not being made in Brazil. The bids for the P-51 and P-52 platforms were then the first in the country to require a minimum domestic content. The requirement was heavily criticized, on the grounds that it would increase the costs of Petrobras, but Rousseff defended the country's ability to produce ships and platforms, stating that the nationalization rates of the platforms, which varied between 15% and 18% rose to more than 60% after the requirement. Lula acknowledged that, from the perspective of the company, the costs did in fact go higher, but that Petrobras should not only target the immediate costs, but also the strengthening of national science and technologies. In 2008, the shipbuilding industry as a whole employed 40 thousand people, compared to 500 people in the mid-90s, in part because of the nationalization requirement. Brazil now has the sixth largest shipping industry in the world.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff proposed to accelerate the goals of universalizing the access to electricity, which had a deadline of 2015, suggesting that 1.4 million rural households would get electricity access by 2006. She argued that it was a social inclusion goal that should be a part of Fome Zero, (Zero Hunger) and that it was not possible to assume that such a program would provide a financial return. During the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, a similar program, called Luz no Campo ("Rural Electrification"), was created to encourage agribusiness providing the funding by the recipient. The goal of the program was to provide electricity to over a million households, but as of early 2003 only half of them had been electrified. According to Rousseff, the results of this program were higher in states where local governments subsidized it for the population. She defended, then, a program heavily subsidized by the federal government, which should not only subsidize, but cover the costs for the universalization of electricity. The subsidy, however, should be for the consumer, and not for the electric companies.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: The program was launched in November 2003, under the name Luz para Todos ("Electricity for All"), focused in regions with a low Human Development Index and toward families with total incomes equaling, up to, three times the minimum wage. The goal of the program was to provide electricity for 2.5 million rural households (approximately 12 million people) by the end of 2008. In October 2008, Rousseff acknowledged that the government would not be able to fulfill its goal in time, leaving 100,000 households behind. In April 2008, the government extended the program until 2010, in order to benefit another 1.17 million families. 49% of the program's connections are concentrated in the Northeastern region of Brazil, which represented, from January 2005 to May 2008, 37.8% of all new wiring in the region, making the Northeast surpass the Southern region in power consumption for the first time. Despite being initially advertised as being funded by the Federal Government, 90% of its cost is actually paid for by electricity consumers, through several tariffs on energy prices.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: As Minister of Energy, Rousseff had the support of two key ministers of the Lula administration: Antonio Palocci and José Dirceu. After Dirceu resigned as Chief of the Presidential Staff due to his involvement in the so-called "Mensalão" scandal, instead of being weakened, Rousseff was chosen by Lula to be the new chief of staff. She took office on 21 June 2005, becoming the first female to assume the position. As a former Energy Minister, she also holds a seat on the board of directors of Petrobras.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: According to Gilberto Carvalho, the President's private secretary, Rousseff, caught the attention of Lula for her courage to face difficult situations and for her technical skills. Franklin Martins, another guerrilla fighter-turned-minister, said Lula was very impressed with Rousseff's management of the Ministry of Energy, where she prevented another blackout. "Lula realized that she kept things moving," he said. By choosing Rousseff, Lula also prevented the political dispute between Palocci and Dirceu to succeed him, while Rousseff did not have such ambition for being a new member of the Workers' Party, and not belonging to any party faction, she moved about well in all of them. Rousseff said to Carvalho that being appointed as chief of staff was a much bigger surprise for her than being appointed as Minister of Energy. In the opinion of Rio Grande do Sul senator and former governor Pedro Simon, since Rousseff took office, "seriousness is being imposed" in the Presidential Staff.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: After Rousseff took office, the U.S. Consulate General in São Paulo sent a long profile of her to the U.S. Department of State. It detailed several aspects of her life, talking about her past activity in guerrilla organizations, her tastes and habits, and professional characteristics, being described as a prestigious and detailed technician, with the reputation of a workaholic and a great ability to listen, but lacking political tact, turning directly to technicians rather than her superiors.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 13 June 2010, after more than two years of widespread speculation, Rousseff launched her campaign as the official presidential candidate for the Workers' Party in the 2010 presidential election. At that time, former São Paulo State Governor José Serra, candidate for the center-right opposition bloc, had been at the top of the polls for over two years. With promises of maintaining Lula's popular policies, Rousseff was able to surpass Serra in all the polls by late July. In spite of maintaining a wide margin over him, she did not receive 50% of valid votes in the first round and had to face a run-off against Serra on 31 October, when she was elected with over 56% of the valid votes.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff's coalition, "For Brazil to keep on changing", was initially formed by nine political parties, which gave her the largest amount of time for advertisement on television. This was the first time that PT got more television time than its main rival, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). However, under Brazilian electoral law, television time must be equally allocated on the run-off. Rousseff's ads were noted for their professionalism and production quality, being rated as the best electoral program by 56% of voters.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff's candidacy was also supported by notable international figures, such as Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, First Secretary of the French Socialist Party Martine Aubry, and American filmmaker Oliver Stone, who recorded a message on her behalf. Singer Alcione, Portuguese Brazilian economist Maria da Conceição Tavares, and journalist Hildegard Angel (daughter of Zuzu Angel and sister of Stuart Angel) also recorded messages on Rousseff's behalf. On 15 October, Tom Morello posted a message on his Twitter account supporting her candidacy, which he said represented "the poor, the working class and the youth."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 18 October 2010, Brazilian artists and intellectuals held an event in the Oi Casagrande theatre in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, to show their support to Rousseff's candidacy. Among them were Chico Buarque, Beth Carvalho, Alceu Valença, Elba Ramalho, Emir Sader, Oscar Niemeyer, Leonardo Boff, and Marilena Chaui. That same day, she received a letter of support by prominent members of the European Green Party, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Dominique Voynet, Monica Frassoni, Philippe Lamberts, Noël Mamère, José Bové, and Yves Cochet. According to the letter, Serra represents "the worst in our society: gender bias, sexism and homophobia, along with the most shady and myopic economic interests."


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Brazilian newspaper "Brasil de Fato", as well as magazine "CartaCapital" both declared support for Rousseff's candidacy. Rousseff won the presidency by an approximate margin of 56% to 44%, and took office on 1 January 2011, as the first woman president of the country. She became the third female head of government ever in the history of Brazil, and the first "de jure" female head of state since the death of Maria I, Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1816.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: During her presidential campaign, Rousseff underwent a makeover, replacing glasses with contact lenses, undergoing plastic surgery and adopting a different hairstyle.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 26 October 2014, Rousseff was re-elected president of Brazil, after securing more than 51% of votes in the closest election race since 1989. An official count showed her rival, center-right candidate Aécio Neves, taking just over 48% of the vote.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: According to Bulgarian media, Bulgaria experienced "Dilma fever." The local media followed the presidential race in Brazil closely, interested in the election of a half-Bulgarian to rule over the world's 5th most populous nation and 7th largest economy. In an interview for the "24 Hours" newspaper, Rousseff said that she "feel[s] tenderness and love for Bulgaria. I can even say that to a certain extent I do feel like I am Bulgarian, even though I have never been in the country where my father was born. My father died when I was only fifteen years old and I did not have the chance to learn Bulgarian." In November 2010, an exhibition was held in Gabrovo about Rousseff's origins.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: After Rousseff's election, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov promptly invited her for an official visit to the country. During her inauguration, he reiterated the invitation. Since her inauguration, Rousseff has received 21 letters from Bulgarian citizens.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 4 October 2011, President Rousseff visited Bulgaria for the first time ever for a state visit as well as for an emotional back-to-the-roots visit to the homeland of her late emigrant father. She paid a visit to the grave of her Bulgarian half-brother, Lyuben-Kamen Rusev, whom she never met and who died in 2007 at the age of 78.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Dilma Rousseff was inaugurated as President of Brazil on 1 January 2011. The event – which was organized by her transitional team, the Ministries of External Relations and Defense and the Presidency of the Republic – was awaited with some expectation, since she became the first woman ever to preside over the country. Important female figures in Brazilian history were honored with panels spread across the Monumental Axis. According to the military police of the Federal District, around 30,000 people attended.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Until 21 December 2010, the publishing house of the Senate had printed 1,229 invitations for Rousseff's inauguration. The National Congress expected a total of 2,000 guests for the ceremony. As reported by the press, between 14 and 17 heads of state and government had confirmed their presence. Among them were José Sócrates, Juan Manuel Santos, Mauricio Funes, Alan García, José Mujica, Hugo Chávez, Álvaro Colom, Alpha Condé, Sebastián Piñera, Evo Morales, (later canceled due to last minute protests in his country) and Boyko Borisov. U.S. President Barack Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to represent him. Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso also attended.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In addition to the formal ceremony, Rousseff's inauguration also featured concerts by five female Brazilian singers: Elba Ramalho, Fernanda Takai, Mart'nália and Zélia Duncan, and Gaby Amarantos. The Ministry of Culture organized the cultural part of the event, having provided a budget of 1.5 million reais (around 800 thousand U.S. dollars) for it. The concerts started at 10:00 am and stopped at 2:00 pm, with the start of the official inauguration ceremony. The concerts continued from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Rousseff did not attend, as she held a reception at the Itamaraty Palace for foreign authorities attending her inauguration. Each foreign authority had the opportunity to talk to her for 30 seconds.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 17 December 2010, Rousseff received from the Supreme Electoral Court a diploma attesting her victory in the 2010 presidential election, becoming the first woman in the history of Brazil to receive it. She was unable to name all members of her cabinet until that ceremony, as she had desired. Rousseff completed the appointment of all 37 members of her cabinet on 22 December 2010. Although she had projected that 30% of her cabinet would be composed of women, the females appointed eventually made up 24% of her cabinet. Rousseff's own Workers' Party (PT) comprised 43% of her cabinet, with 16 members, while 12 other offices were handed out to six out of ten political parties that formed her winning electoral coalition. The remaining 9 cabinet offices, among which were key offices such as the presidency of the Central Bank of Brazil, the Ministry of External Relations and the Ministry of the Environment, were handed out to non-partisan technical names.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Since she took office, Rousseff has changed the members of her cabinet members four times. She has become the president which promoted the highest number of cabinet changes in the first six months of government. On 7 June 2011, Rousseff's then chief of staff and influential PT leader, Antonio Palocci resigned from office due to a scandal involving his personal wealth evolution. On the same day, Paraná Senator Gleisi Hoffmann (also from PT) replaced him. Three days later, Ideli Salvatti – former Santa Catarina Senator for PT and Minister of Fishing and Aquaculture up until then – traded office with Luiz Sérgio – former mayor of Angra dos Reis and licensed federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro (both for PT) and Secretary of Institutional Relations up until that moment. On 6 July, Alfredo Nascimento, then Minister of Transportation, left office after allegations that public works were being overbilled. On 4 August, Nelson Jobim left the Ministry of Defense after an interview he gave to the "Piauí" magazine criticizing both Hoffmann and Salvatti. Rousseff named Celso Amorim to replace him. Jobim had previously declared to have voted on José Serra for president. With the changes, the female presence in the cabinet increased to 26%, while the PT presence increased to almost 45%.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: When she arrived at the presidential palace, Rousseff announced her desire to promote women (a decision that was mocked by the press, which called the government a "Republic of high heels"). But she has barely succeeded in appointing them in 24% of the ministries. The appointments depend on the political parties in the coalition, which – with the exception of the Workers' Party (PT) – do not support positive discrimination.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff maintained a majority approval rating throughout her first term. In late March 2013, her government was approved by 63% of Brazilians, while her personal approval rating was at 79%, a personal high. Rousseff was also cited as the preferential candidate for 58% of the voters in the 2014 presidential election, in which she was reelected. Rousseff's popularity is attributed to popular measures of her government, such as the reduction of the federal tax in the energy bill and the exemption of federal tax in the products of the consumer basket (meat, milk, beans, rice, flour, potatoes, tomatoes, bread, sugar, coffee powder, cooking oil, butter, bananas and apples). The lowering of the overnight rate conducted by the Central Bank of Brazil is also mentioned as a cause for Rousseff's high popularity. This has caused some to consider her "populist", a consideration shared by her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In early 2015, Rousseff's popularity began to decline and in February 2015, a month before the 2015 protests in Brazil began, Rousseff's approval rating dropped 19 points to 23% with 44% disapproving of her.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In July of the same year, her approval rating reached a new low (9%), while her disapproval rating reached 64%. By late 2015, thousands of Brazilians began to protest, demanding Rousseff's impeachment.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In March and April 2015 millions of protesters took to the streets during the 2015 protests in Brazil against Rousseff's alleged involvement in the Petrobras scandal which involved kickbacks and corruption. When allegations surfaced that graft occurred while President Rousseff was part of the board of directors of Petrobras, between 2003 and 2010, Brazilians became upset with the government and called for Rousseff's impeachment. No direct evidence implicating Rousseff in the scheme has been made public, and she denies having any prior knowledge of it.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: The chain of events that ended with President Rousseff's impeachment was begun by the English lawyer Jonathan David Taylor. In 2013 Taylor blew the whistle on SBM Offshore NV, the Dutch company responsible for paying hundreds of millions of dollars to senior Petrobras personnel in bribes to win offshore oil and gas-related contracts, while Rousseff chaired the national oil and gas company. Later SBM illicitly funded her Workers Party during Rousseff's first presidential election. The scandal gave rise to Operation Car Wash, which in turn led to Rousseff's popularity falling to 5% in the polls as the enormity of the levels of corruption at the organisations she headed came to light. In 2015, millions of Brazilians protested in over fifty cities and her downfall became an inevitability. Taylor's revelations would later lead to Rousseff's predecessor, President Lula, being jailed for corruption.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff's administration pushed to complete a number of hydroelectric dam projects in the Amazon River Basin, despite appeals from local residents of areas that would be affected, including indigenous tribes, and pressure from both domestic and international groups. Opposition to the dam projects, especially the Belo Monte Dam project, was driven by environmental, economic and human rights concerns, for both the people to be displaced and the workers brought in from other parts of Brazil to build the dams. Xingu (Kayapo) Chief Raoni Metuktire and members of other tribes affected by hydroelectric dam projects proposed or already under construction; Brazilian and international NGOs, including Greenpeace, Amazon Watch and International Rivers and international celebrities including director James Cameron, actress Sigourney Weaver, and musician Sting all called for a halt to Amazon Basin hydroelectric projects.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Working conditions for laborers on the projects were harsh, while pay was low despite a high cost of living at the remote construction sites. This led to strikes and other worker actions at several hydroelectric projects. In the spring of 2012, 17,000 workers at the Jirau Dam site went on strike for over three weeks, and later some began looting company stores, setting fire to dam structures, and destroying worker housing. Military troops eventually deployed to quell the rioting and end the strike.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Meanwhile, multiple courts, offices and state governments continue to litigate to halt dam projects; the status of the Belo Monte project was reversed so many times via injunctions and appeals that only the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court remained – along with, theoretically, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH), the judicial body of the Organization of American States (OAS), which also called on Brazil to halt Belo Monte and other projects accused of human rights violations. However, President Rousseff had already recalled the Brazilian ambassador to the OAS, and furthermore withheld Brazil's annual contribution to the CIDH, approximately US$800,000.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff was less popular with Brazilian LGBT social movements than expected from a left-wing president, and an often cited reason is that there are many instances in the government's balance of power where disagreements with the right-wing factions may have side effects. For example, although Brazil is a secular state and church and state are separated, religion is openly discussed and involved in politics. The best example is the Evangelical Caucus.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ruled 10–0 in May 2011, with one abstention, to legalise same-sex civil unions (see also same-sex marriage in Brazil). The same month, however, a spokesperson for President Dilma Rousseff announced that she had suspended distribution of sex education videos through the ministries of health and education, saying that "anti-homophobia kits", as they are known, were "inappropriate for children" and did not offer an objective view of homosexuality.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: From 25 May 2012, Rousseff's government faced a number of strikes by public employees, especially university professors. The strike left millions of students without classes for months. According to O Globo, a Rio de Janeiro newspaper, she believes private sector jobs should be prioritized by her government's policies.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 2013, the government revised the status of domestic workers. The law now imposes a maximum working time of forty-four hours per week, the payment of overtime in case of overtime, a minimum wage, the possibility of taking breaks, health coverage and makes redundancy payments compulsory.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: Rousseff was ranked fourth in "Forbes" 2014 list of the most powerful women in the world, and the second most powerful in 2013. In 2015 she was the 7th, and in 2016 she was no longer in the list.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In August 2011, Rousseff was included in the "Forbes" list of the most powerful women in the world, at the 3rd position, behind Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In October 2010, she was included in the "Forbes" list of the most powerful people in the world, at the 16th position. She was the third highest placed woman on the list, after Angela Merkel and Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 20 September, she received a Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award at the Pierre Hotel in New York City, a distinction which was also given to her predecessor in 2009. On the following day, she became the first woman to open a session of the United Nations General Assembly. Rousseff was featured on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine on 26 September 2011.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 2 December 2015, Eduardo Cunha, president of the Chamber of Deputies, accepted a petition for Rousseff's impeachment. A special committee held hearings and recommended that the full Chamber authorize presenting the charges to the Senate. On 17 April 2016, the lower house voted by the required majority of two-thirds of its members to present the impeachment petition to the Senate, and did so on 18 April 2016.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: A Senate special committee concluded in a report that the accusation justified an impeachment trial and recommended an impeachment trial. On 12 May 2016, the Senate began the impeachment trial. Rousseff was notified and under the Constitution of Brazil automatically suspended from the presidency pending a final decision of the Senate. Vice President Michel Temer assumed her powers and duties as acting president of Brazil during the suspension.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 31 August 2016, the Senate, sitting as a judicial body, voted 61–20 in favor of a guilty verdict, convicting Rousseff of breaking budget laws and removing her from office. Temer subsequently assumed the office and was sworn in as President of Brazil.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: In 2022, the judicial investigation into the accusations of accounting manipulations that were the basis for his impeachment was officially closed, as the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry (MPF) did not identify any crime or act of administrative irregularity.


title: Dilma Rousseff

text: On 5 August 2018, the Workers' Party convention in Minas Gerais officialized Rousseff as a Senate candidate, representing the state, in the 2018 elections. She placed fourth in the election. Of the two seats in the Senate for Minas Gerais, Rodrigo Pacheco and Carlos Viana were the winners.


title: Franco Columbu

text: Francesco Maria Columbu (August 7, 1941 – August 30, 2019) was an Italian bodybuilder, powerlifter, actor, author, producer, and a licensed chiropractor.


title: Franco Columbu

text: Originally a boxer, Columbu won the Mr. Olympia in 1976 and 1981, and competed in the inaugural edition of the World's Strongest Man in 1977, where he placed fifth. He also had an acting career and authored numerous books on bodybuilding and nutrition. Columbu was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2001, and received the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.


title: Franco Columbu

text: Columbu was born on August 7, 1941, in Ollolai on the island of Sardinia, Italy. He was a son of shepherds Maria Grazia Sedda and Antonio Columbu. He said in 1982: "I was always skinny. Until I was 11, I got beat up a lot. Then one day, I started beating people up. Nobody could touch me." He worked as a shepherd while training as a boxer. He won over 30 fights as a boxer before quitting the sport in favor of weightlifting and bodybuilding, stating: "Boxing's too rough on your face and head."


title: Franco Columbu

text: Columbu moved to Germany at a young age for work, and met Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1965 at a bodybuilding competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Columbu formed a lifelong friendship with Schwarzenegger, and was Schwarzenegger's best man for his marriage to Maria Shriver in 1986 and godfather to their daughter Christina. Columbu and Schwarzenegger remained very close friends until Columbu's death, with Schwarzenegger stating in 2016 "He was my favourite training partner four decades ago and he is my favourite training partner today."


title: Franco Columbu

text: With Schwarzenegger, Columbu moved to California in the late 1960s to train and work with Joe Weider. Weider provided them with a place to live and an $80 () per week stipend. The stipend was not enough to live on, so to support their bodybuilding careers, they began a bricklaying company named European Brick Works in 1969.


title: Franco Columbu

text: At and a competition weight of around , Columbu won the IFBB Mr. Europe and Mr. Universe titles in 1970, and the 1971 IFBB Mr. World. He won the lightweight class of the 1974 and 1975 IFBB Mr. Olympias, before winning the overall competition for the first time in 1976.


title: Franco Columbu

text: Columbu participated in the inaugural edition of the World's Strongest Man in 1977. He placed fifth, behind four men who outweighed him by around . During the event, he dislocated his left knee while carrying a refrigerator on his back. The injury kept him out of competition for a few years, and he received a reported $1 million (equivalent to $ million in ) in compensation. Columbu returned to win the 1981 Mr. Olympia then retired from competition.


title: Franco Columbu

text: Known for his strength, Columbu's clean and jerk record was , his bench press record was , his squat record was , and his deadlift record was . He was named in "The Guinness Book of Records" in 1978 for bursting a hot water bottle by blowing into it, which he achieved in 55 seconds.