MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dilma Rousseff, the most powerful person in Latinamerica according to Forbes

Forbes latest list is headed by Chinese president Hu Jintao, no annoying bureaucracy or court can stop his wishes

Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff was included in Forbes magazine latest list of the 68 most powerful people in the world which is headed by Chinese president Hu Jintao.

Ms Rousseff ranks 16, and is one of the few Latinamericans to make it to the list together with Mexico’s businessman Carlos Slim Helu (21) and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera (51). In position 58 figures Eike Batista a Brazilian billionaire with interests in mining, oil and finance, who completes the group of four Latinamericans in the powerful list.

According to Forbes, Rousseff merits being considered among the 68 most powerful in the world since she is the “chosen successor handpicked by President Lula da Silva to take the reins of Brazil, the largest Latinamerican economy as its first woman president”.

Although her victory was not as easy as expected, Rousseff will be managing Latinamerica’s largest economy and one of the main food exporters of the world. “The president-elect has the credentials for the job: as a former Marxist guerrilla she was jailed, tortured, twice divorced and recently overcame cancer”, added Forbes.

Rousseff is yet to become a brand, but it will soon be “as Brazil advances in the organization of the 2014 World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016”, points out Forbes.

According to the latest Forbes list behind Hu Jintao figures US president Barack Obama, and in third position Saudi Arabia’s king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud. He is followed by Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin, Pope Benedict XVI, German chancellor Angela Merkel and British PM, David Cameron.

Hu Jintao tops the list because according to Forbes because he rules over more people than anybody else and has a dictatorial control over a fifth of the world’s population.

“Contrary to its peers from the West, Hu Jintao can change the course of rivers, build cities, lock up his opponents and censor Internet without having the bureaucracy or the courts stopping him from doing so”. Obama on the other hand has lost part of its power following this week’s mid term elections.

In position 57 of the Forbes list figures Al Qaeda Osama bin Laden.

The first twenty: 1.- Hu Jintao, President of China, (67); 2.- Barack Obama, US President, (49); 3.- Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, (86); 4.- Vladimir Putin, Russia’s PM (58); 5.- Pope Benedict XVI, (83); 6.- Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, (56); 7 UK PM David Cameron (44); 8.- Ben Bernanke, US Fed chairman (56); 9. Sonia Gandhi, India’s Congress president (63); 10.- Bill Gates, (55); 11.- Zhou Xiaochuan, China central bank chairman (62); 12.- Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President (45); 13.- Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. CEO, (79)14.- Silvio Berlusconi, Italian PM (74); 15.- Jean-Claude Trichet, Chairman European Central Bank, (67); 16.- Dilma Rousseff, President-elect Brazil, (62); 17.- Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, (55); 18.- Manmohan Singh, India’s PM (78); 19.- Nicholas Sarkozy, French president (55) and 20.- Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, (63).