Via NYTimes:

The election completed an unlikely journey that took Rousseff from jail and brutal torture by her military captors in the 1970s to become the first woman to lead Latin America’s largest economy.

A 62-year-old economist and former energy minister who leans left but has become more pragmatic over the years, Rousseff had never run for elected office. Yet she received decisive support from Lula, who plucked her from relative obscurity to succeed him.

“I think she will continue Lula’s work,” said Elizabete Gomes da Silva, a factory worker in Sao Paulo. “He governed for the people who needed him most — the poorest.”