Marina Silva

Marina Silva, Presidential Candidate

Maria Osmarina Marina Silva Vaz de Lima

Marina Silva is the dark horse of the 2010 Presidential election. She has problems of name recognition among Brazilin voters who, notwithstanding her lengthy and notable career, is largely unknown. She has positioned herself as the Green Party candidate this year, although she was a member of the PT for 30 years, until she resigned in August of 2009.

She has a remarkable personal story being born into a family of eight children in the state of Acre which has a population of 700,000, or 0.3% of the total Brazilian population situated in 1.8% of Brazilian territory. Acre is in the Northwestern corner of Brazil, and borders with both Peru and Bolivia.

Marina Silva was not taught to read until she was 16 years old when she was sent to Acre`s capital, Rio Branco, due to illness. There, she learned to read, became a domestic servant, and later graduated from the Federal University of Acre in history. She joined the Partido Trabalhista-PT (Workers Party) in 1985.

In 1988 she became the vereador (local councilor) to receive most votes in Rio Branco. In 1990 she became a State Deputy, once again with a record vote, and in 1994 became, at the age of 36, the youngest Senator in the history of Brazil. In 1996 she won the coveted Goldman Award for Environmental achievement. In 2002 she was re-elected Senator, but was offered the Ministry of Environment in 2003 by the newly elected President, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, which she accepted. A little more than five years later she resigned from the Government due to the lack of support for environmental projects. This policy change is often laid at the door of Dilma Rousseff with whom she had a number of policy disagreements.

In 2007 she won the Champions of the Earth prize from the United Nations, an award won also by Al Gore among others, and the Norwegian Sofia award in recognition of her work to limit deforestation in the Amazon.

After leaving the PT in 2009 she joined the Green Party with the obvious intent of becoming a Presidential candidate under their auspices. In the early months of her campaign she has counted on a 7% to 8% of voting intentions, which has since risen to 10% – 12% since Ciro Gomes has with drawn. She has shown ability to draw 14% to 15% in her home region of the center West, and higher than average percentages also in the more educated and environmentally committed South-East.

The reason that Brazil News Blog takes time to introduce Marina Silva is first because she is a Presidential contender representing a minority, but important sector of the community (The green party of England won their first seat in Parliament this month). She is a serious and dedicated person with multiple achievements, and thirdly, she is a woman who has a resume that allows her to know and understand more aspects of society, and thus politics than her Presidential competitors. We foresee a period, over the next few months where the Brazilian population become more aware of her as a candidate of stature, and will see this reflected in voting intentions. Whether she will become a bigger threat to Dilma or Jose Serra is a matter of conjecture. But we don`t doubt that she will undercut the traditional politics of Brazil and become a serious Presidential player.

Her challenge will be to develop the Green ticket not just as an environmental pressure group, but as a political party that can develop a wide ranging governing program that makes sense in competition with those of the PT and the PSDB. We have no doubt that she can succeed at this. She has made a headline grabbing start with the nomination of Guilherme Leal, owner and director of the cosmetics company Natura as her Vice Presidential candidate. She also has to make the best of a less than national structure for the Green Party where Fernando Gabeira, the Green candidate for President for the Governorship of Rio de Janeiro, has indicated that he may well vote for Jose Serra rather than his own Party`s candidate.

Marina Silva`s candidacy for President has started well, and we expect to see a significant increase in the number of voting intentions she will receive as the campaign develops.