Lula da Silva, the father of the poor who changed the history of Brazil
The veteran leader, 80 years old, is the most relevant contemporary political figure in Latin America
São PauloUnlike what happened in Argentina with Juan Domingo Perón, Lulism will not become an ideology nor will it perpetuate itself as a political movement in Brazil, but rather it will disappear when Lula da Silva, 80 years old, decides to step aside. For the moment, however, that has not been the case. The mark of the social and income transfer policies established in his first two terms (2003-2010), which benefited 50 million Brazilians, 36 million of whom rose out of extreme poverty, has transformed the South American giant forever.
The father of the poor placed the excluded at the epicenter of public policies for the first time in the history of Brazil, which has also translated into the strengthening of public health and education systems—for example, a network of federal universities has been created—, and in the promotion of access to consumption as an engine of the economy. Lula is the figure who gives shape to the New Republic, emerged from the 1988 Constitution, in an unfinished project that, even so, triggered a furious reaction from reactionary sectors, now sheltered under the umbrella of far-right Bolsonarism.
Their fight against hunger and inequality has given them international projection, as has the defense of multilateralism and the Global South on the contemporary geopolitical stage, and the creation and consolidation of the bloc of emerging countries grouped in the BRICS.
Born in 1945 into a poor family in Pernambuco, Lula is one of the retirantes from the northeast who migrated to São Paulo, the country's main economic hub, to escape hunger. He began working at the age of 12 and, in 1968, four years after the military coup and when he was twenty-three, he joined the Metalworkers' Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema, of which he would eventually become president and from where he would lead the general strikes of 1979 and 1980. During the latter, he was imprisoned for 31 days. He is one of the founders of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), created in 1980 in São Paulo, which brought together unions, popular movements, the leftist intelligentsia, and Catholic base communities that defended liberation theology.
In 1989 he ran in the first presidential election after the redemocratization, in which he was defeated by Fernando Collor de Mello, who would end up being removed from office in an impeachment process in 1992. He lost two more elections, in 1994 and 1998, to Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was elected in the first round on both occasions. Finally, in 2002, he reached the Palácio do Planalto after three legislatures of fierce opposition. He finished his two terms with an 83% approval rating, a fact that boosted the candidacy of Dilma Rousseff, chosen by Lula himself as his successor.
One year and seven months in prison
The ultraconservative wave, fueled by the investigations into corruption at Petrobras, the mixed-capital oil company, culminated in the removal of Rousseff, also through an impeachment process, in 2016. Lula da Silva was convicted of passive corruption and money laundering by judge Sérgio Moro, who would later become Minister of Justice under Jair Bolsonaro. He spent one year and seven months imprisoned in Curitiba, between April 2018 and November 2019, a fact that prevented him from participating in the presidential elections that brought the far-right to power.
After being released, the Federal Supreme Court annulled the convictions, considering that the court that had tried him lacked jurisdiction. In 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee pointed out the bias of Judge Moro in the proceedings against Lula.
With a broad political front, from the far-left to the center-right, he defeated Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, and dodged an attempted coup d'état, for which the extremist former president ended up imprisoned. His third term has been marked by the difficulties of governing with a conservative Congress and Senate. He faced his reelection with a scenario of entrenched polarization, and with the shadow of Donald Trump pressing from Washington with the help of big tech companies. Nevertheless, he has overcome it.
