In wake of defeats, Brazil’s Rousseff takes show on the road

SAO PAULO (AP) — It’s been a rough couple of years for Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party. First President Dilma Rousseff was booted from office. Then a corruption scandal reached even the party’s founder, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He’s been imprisoned despite leading polls ahead of October elections.

Now Rousseff is heading abroad to make her case to audiences in Spain and California, arguing that her party’s troubles are signs that authoritarian forces are gaining a dangerous hold on Latin American’s largest nation — and hoping that greater international prestige may even bring the party more followers back home.

his past week, she was in Madrid and Barcelona ahead of visits to the University of California, Berkeley, on Monday, to Stanford University on Tuesday and San Diego State University on Wednesday.