DILMA ROUSSEFF IN 2013 - any regrets?

She regained the people, glued to Forbes list and... got away with seven capital sins

Ms. Dilma Rousseff stayed in power. This was her greatest accomplisment this year. Remaining atop Forbes list of most powerful women, just behind Merkel, her second.

Being a witness to the enormous demonstrations, especially those on June 17, that swept streets all over Brazil, I can only be assured that the president of the country does not regularly act having the good of her people in sight. Any ruler really faithful to that ideal would have resigned on that unforgettable day, the year half way through. A couple of months earlier she had started campaigning for re-election. Her reaction?

Dilma just silenced. Being too slow to just utter something, she eventually came to the open to pretend she was not a bit surprised and to make one more serious blunder: defend a referendum to be held in time for her to benefit from it over the 2014 elections. Failed again.

We join these related erros together as the first among seven of Dilma's capital sins in 2013. What are the other six? Here goes the full list:

Sin #1. (recapping) Choose total silence before the majestic demonstrations that inaugurated in June.

Dilma, in addition, attempts to impose a referendum, as long as it could favor herself in the next election. At that point, she suddenly realizes demonstrations are "normal" in democracies. Translation: I must put up with them, disguising my irritation.

Sin #2. Despise Snowden as an "individual".

In Brazilian Portuguese, using that term in the way the president does is derisive, bearing a meaning akin to "such a guy". I interpret that as, again, a purposeful act on the part of the president, this time making use of Snowden's tremendously brave act, guided by her own aim to get much more control over the Internet, which has become clear to me since her participation in the Global Conference in Dubai, back in 2009. I have recently written here that Dilma does not heartedly fight for human rights - e.g., she does not do any homework in view of Brazil's shameful number of journalists murdered every year -, but merely pursues power.

Sin #3. Change stadiums for that global arena.

As Dilma encountered a chorus of boos at the opening of the Confederations Cup, she impersonated herself in her most authentic role. (Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters were doing their part outside the stadium. Police violence was another copy-paste.) Another result, she changed stadiums for the UN Assembly. It seems to have worked really well. On seeing Dilma so many times on that foreign/global arena, people must have changed their mind about how much it is right to like the president: "She must  be just great to give speeches there so often." The big sin: stadiums under construction for the World Cup started to collapse, yes, literally. And she just hid again.

Sin #4. Miss the point altogether. In heaven and hell.

Faced with the unique statesmanship act of diplomat Eduardo Saboia, Dilma picks a single declaration of his: the one where Saboia expresses he felt as if the repressive agency of the military dictatorship was set next to his door inside the Brazilian embassy in Lima, where Molinas was kept in a prision-like condition for over a year (that is, until Saboia took the case in his hands and brought Molinas to Brazil, secretly). Dilma does not comment the act per se, but, we stress, picks that particular piece of a long Saboia's interview to TV to rebuke him, saying: "I know what is DOI-Codi (the name of such military agency). I was there. The distance between DOI-Codi and the embassy in Lima is similar to that between heaven and hell." Well, if Saboia had not done time in DOI-Codi, Dilma has been not to either heaven or hell. Saboia, predictably to those really familiar with Brazilian democratic ways, has disappeared. I wonder: is he in heaven or hell? What is your guess, reader?

Sin #5. Create one more ministry - the 40th.

The new minister kept his post of vice-governor, despite general criticism and the fact there are so many Dilma's allies available and eager to occupy just a single post.

Sin #6. Confess and almost beg to Pope Francis in public.

Sharing the stage with the pontifex as he popped to lead the massive Catholic youth event in Rio de Janeiro, in July, Dilma got the message of her discourse totally wrong: she went into politics and, moreover, sounded as if she had to submit a report to the boss. Pope Francis then showed he had come from God, while Dilma was still trying to come to terms with the Devil.

Sin #7. Embrace cover-up to the last consequences.

Holocaust Universal Day, Jan 27, Dilma abandoned Chile and rushed into Santa Maria (in the southern-most state of Brazil) to compete with the sun rise, in order to avoid the real number of casualties to come to the air. (Of course, that is not admitted; it is cover-up.) Stretching down the figure to the least, 800 (eight hundred) people, mostly students, lost their lives in the arson of Kiss nightclub. News reported about 200 had died. December: Oscar Niemeyer's piece at Memorial da America Latina complex, in São Paulo city, is destroyed by fire. It was then revealed that, as the nightclub, that public place did not meet the legal requirements to house audiences. Next, all the icon tourist spots in São Paulo, MASP included, were also reported as lacking the legal documentation. No one dared to publicly remember Kiss. The president of the country also preferred to remain silent.

By the way, we would not await Dilma's end of the year speech. But, as we just make that a point here, she is now bound to make a show.

Dear reader, how would your list of Dilma's blunders look like? Send your comments to mariangelapedro @ yahoo.com

Mariangela Pedro