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Marina Silva: From Amazon Orphan To President Of Brazil?

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A political phoenix has risen from the ashes of a plane crash in Brazil. Next month it might result in South America's political upset of the decade.

Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed in that Aug. 13 accident outside São Paulo. Days later Campos’ running mate – environmentalist and former Senator Marina Silva – took his place as the Brazilian Socialist Party’s nominee. In voter polls, Silva quickly catapulted alongside the incumbent front-runner, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. She’s now tied with Rousseff ahead of the Oct. 5 election.

How has Silva traveled from poor orphan from the Amazon to possibly President of the world’s sixth largest economy? I spoke by phone with NPR South America correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in São Paulo.

Here are excerpts from our conversation:

Lourdes, who is Marina Silva? Her story seems the stuff of a Brazilian fairy tale.

It really is. She grew up in the deep jungle interior of this country. The center of power here is based on the coasts; that’s what the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are. So she just represents something geographically new. She’s mixed race: her ancestors are black and Portuguese and indigenous.

And then, she grew up incredibly poor, the daughter of rubber tappers. She put herself through school by working as a maid. So her story really resonates among many Brazilians.

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And the fact that she’s mixed race – that’s quite a leap for Brazil, which is hardly the color-blind country it likes to think it is.

She's being called Brazil's Obama. Anyone who is Afro-Brazilian will tell you this is an incredibly racist country. Only a tiny fraction of the Congress is actually represented by people of color. And that’s considering the fact that 52 percent of the country is actually of Afro-Brazilian descent.

But why Marina Silva? She was a running mate until last month, and the candidate she replaced was running a distant third in the polls. Why does she suddenly vault ahead of Dilma Rousseff?

Her popularity has actually been on the rise since the massive [anti-government] protests, if you’ll recall, of about a year ago. When polling was done at that point, people really saw her as an alternative to the traditional political parties. They are seeing her as someone who will still be from the left – many people here have benefited from the leftist policies of the PT, the governing party here – but they want change.

The [PT] is a party that’s been in power for [12] years now. It’s been riven with corruption scandals. And so they see in Marina Silva continuity but also a change to what is seen as a very corrupt political system here.

Brazilians see in Marina Silva leftist continuity but also change to a very corrupt political system. – Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

How much of it also stems from the fact that she is a staunch defender of the Amazon and that she was close to Brazil’s most famous environmental martyr, Chico Mendes, who was assassinated in 1988?

I think she is someone who has walked the walk and talked the talk. She left the government of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva when she was Environment Minister because she clashed with many of the ministers, including Dilma Rousseff, over environmental policies. People see her as a person of principle.

And of course she shares the same humble background as Lula, who is arguably Brazil’s most popular president.

What’s really, I think, interesting about this election is two women running against each other, but they’re also both sort of the protégés of Lula. And I think that shows how large he still looms in the Brazilian psyche.

What seems harder to explain is that the business community seems to favor her.

Exactly. There is a real sense that Brazil’s economy is stagnating. The business community wants more business-friendly practices, and that is something Marina Silva is talking about. She also wants a rapprochement with the United States.

LACKING SPECIFICS

But are there any questions about whether she’s really prepared to run one of the world’s largest emerging countries?

Many questions. I mean, that is certainly what the opposition to her has been focusing on. Yes, she has a compelling back story, but she isn’t really specific about a lot of the policies that they want to enact.

Silva and Rousseff are essentially in a dead heat. So is this likely to go to a second round on Oct. 26?

I think more than likely. Here you have to get 50 percent plus one [to avoid a run-off]. Nobody has that yet [in voter polls]. So [a second round] is really where we’ll see the competition.

That’s where we see Marina Silva has a real possibility of winning. At that point people who might have supported Aécio Neves, who’s on the right, will go possibly with Marina Silva. What’s so exciting is that it’s anyone’s game. It’s an exciting time in Brazil, where people are really examining their priorities.

Tim Padgett is WLRN's Americas editor. You can read more of his coverage here.

The Latin America Report is made possible by Espirito Santo Bank

Tim Padgett is the Americas Editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org
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