5 challenges that Fátima Bezerra will face as governor in Brazil

Creating policies that include Afro-descendants and indigenous people and ensure the rights of the LGBTIQ community are some of the challenges that Fátima Bezerra will face

The past presidential elections in Brazil had a large female participation. However, the candidates were mostly men. In fact, there was only one woman aspiring to the presidency: the environmentalist Marina Silva, who was defeated in the first round. As far as the elections for the governance of the States are concerned, the political map was also dominated by men.

Leer en español: 5 retos que tendrá Fátima Bezerra como gobernadora en Brasil

However, Fátima Bezerra of the Workers' Party (PT) marked an encouraging development for female representation in power, after winning the elections in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. In this way, Bezerra became the only woman who will assume a government during the term of Jair Bolsonaro, who will be in power in the country from January 1, 2019.

These are the challenges of Fátima Bezerra

1. Brazil has implemented policies that strengthened equal access to education, improved maternal health, and reduced adolescent pregnancy rates, according to a World Bank report. However, these did not benefit sectors with high poverty rates, such as Afro-descendant and indigenous communities.

This situation, then, becomes the first challenge that Bezerra will have during her mandate in the governorship of Rio Grande do Norte: create policies that include these communities. This taking IGNORE INTO account that she has been carrying the political banner of fighting for the rights of women, indigenous people, people of African descent and the LGBTIQ community, both before and after being elected.

2. Another of Bezerra's challenges is precisely to reduce the poverty that, as El Espectador points out, covers this Brazilian territory. According to Trubina do Norte of Brazil, at the end of 2017, the poverty figures in Rio Grande do Norte reached 18%. This accounts an increase in the indices of this problem, taking IGNORE INTO account that in 2016 the figures reached 11%, mainly due to unemployment. For its part, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) points out that in Brazil extreme poverty increased from 13 million in 2016 to 14.8 in 2017.

3. A report entitled "Violence against women", carried out by the Pan American Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States, places Brazil in the fifth place in countries with the highest rate of homicides against women. The data is obtained after analyzing 83 countries. Combating such problems is another of the challenges that Fátima Bezerra will have.

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4. As El País of Spain mentions, data from the World Bank reveal that Afro-descendant women in Brazil earn $ 5 per hour, while white men receive $ 10 for the same period of time. In the marches of the EleÑao women's movement, one of the petitions, apart from rejecting Bolsonaro's arrival to power, was precisely to reduce the wage inequality between women and men. This situation could end if Fatima proposes it as a goal to achieve. It would undoubtedly be a great achievement in a government dominated by men.

5. According to Amnesty International, "277 LGBTI people were victims of homicide in Brazil between January 1 and September 20, the highest number since that organization began collecting data in 1980." In this way, the main right to defend the LGBTIQ population in Rio Grande do Norte is undoubtedly that of life.

Who is Fatima Bezerra?

Born in Nova Palmeira, Paraíba, Brazil, in 1955. Fátima Bezerra completed more than 35 years in politics since she started in 1980 in the municipal and state councils of the Brazilian city of Natal. Months later, she became president of the Association of Educational Advisors. Then she served as general secretary of the Teachers' Association. Her struggle for access to education led her to join the Workers' Party of Lula da Silva in 1981.

Years later she went from being a regional deputy between 1995 and 2003 to federal deputy from 2003 to 2014. Subsequently, in 2015 she served as senator. Later on, she became president of the Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Defense of the Consumer, the Environment, the Interior and the Commission for Participatory Legislation of the Chamber of Deputies, according to El Espectador. Now, the Brazilian become the new governor of Rio Grande do Norte.

Latin American Post | Edwin Guerrero Nova

Translated from "5 retos que tendrá Fátima Bezerra como gobernadora en Brasil"

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