Lula da Silva is one of the most influential and enduring politicians in Latin America, known as the “silver-tongued statesman”, also known as “Lula”. He belongs to the Brazilian left. Born in 1945 in BrazilShe ruled for two successive terms between 2003 and 2011.
He went to prison after being accused of involvement in corruption cases. He was re-elected as President of Brazil in October 2022 before officially assuming office on January 1, 2023.
Birth and upbringing
Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was born on October 27, 1945 in northeastern Brazil, specifically in the city of Garanhon in the state of Pernambuco. His parents were poor and illiterate farmers. They had 8 children, the seventh of whom was Luis Inacio.
His family lived a turbulent life full of crises, as the father fled with a woman from his relatives, leaving his family behind, and went to work in the port of Santos in the state. Sao PauloHe was sending some money to support his wife and eight children.
In 1950, Lula met his father for the first time. He then got to know his brothers and sisters, who were the result of his father’s marriage to their relative. He became attached to his half-brother, Frei Chico, who was four years older than him and had the greatest influence in Lula’s life, as he introduced him to the principles of union work.
In 1952, the family moved on a cargo truck to the city of Guaruja on the coast of Sao Paulo state, where Lula was forced to contribute to the family income, by shining shoes and selling peanuts in the streets.
After 3 years, his parents separated and he moved to live with his mother in the city of Sao Paulo. When he was 12, he worked in a dry cleaning store, a street vendor, and a shoe shiner, as well as a delivery service for a cleaning and ironing store, and an assistant in an office, then in a factory, where he was involved in an accident in which he lost the little finger of his left hand. .
In 1969, he married Lola, the sister of his best friend, Jacinto Ribeiro dos Santos, called Maria, a worker from the state of Minas Gerais. In 1971, she was infected with hepatitis in the seventh month of her pregnancy, and she and her fetus died after a cesarean section, which doctors decided to try to save the mother and child.
In 1974, from an illicit relationship with his then-girlfriend, Miriam Cordero, he had a daughter whom he named Lorian. In the same year, Lola married Marisa Letizia Rocco Casa, a widow, with whom he had 3 children.
Lola and his second wife were married for more than 30 years, until Marissa’s death on February 2, 2017, following a stroke.
In 2017, he met “Jania” and their relationship remained secret until 2019, at which time he was serving a prison sentence in Curitiba (Paraná), due to corruption charges that were later dropped against him. Lula and Jania were officially married on May 18, 2022.
Study and training
Despite his father’s objection to his children’s education, Lula studied at the Marsilio school complex, began pursuing training courses within the Brazilian National Industrial Vocational Service program in 1960, and was able to become a mechanic at the Para Fusos Marti metal company.
In 1963, he obtained a certificate in lathe mechanics.
Political experience
In the 1960s, Brazil witnessed an economic boom that did not benefit the working class. During that period, Lula was not highly politicized, but he became involved in union work after the tragedy of the death of his wife and child, which made him immerse himself in union work in an attempt to forget his personal tragedy.
In 1967, he was a worker at the Velaris Industries Company in Saubernardo de Campo, and joined the Metallurgical Industries Union, under the leadership of his brother, Frei Chico, an activist in the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). In 1969, he became Deputy Secretary General of the Saubernardo do Campo Union. Diadema”, then president of the federation in 1975.
Lula quickly demonstrated his talents as an orator and negotiator, and proved to be a distinguished Brazilian trade union figure with his thick beard and thick, messy hair, which aroused the ire of the authorities, who put him in prison for short periods under the military regime.
Lula succeeded in bringing about a radical change in trade union work in the country, as he transformed trade unions from institutions under the orbit of governments or loyal to them, into a strong, independent trade union movement.
He led the largest labor strikes organized at the end of the 1970s in the industrial zone of São Paulo, strikes that were not common in Brazil, which was under military rule between 1964 and 1985.
The security cells affiliated with the administration of the political and social system of the military government tracked him down and imprisoned him in the early 1980s with a group of union leaders without issuing a judicial order.
This repression and security pursuit prompted him in the early 1980s to shift completely to political action after he realized that he would not come to power without establishing an alliance with other political forces and attracting major economic players at home and abroad to his camp. However, despite this, he remained committed to the issues of the poor. Defending the principles of integrity and fighting corruption in the corridors of government, and encouraging poor people from the oppressed class to engage in political work.
According to this idea, he was able to bring together trade unionists and disparate intellectual and religious elites within one political framework, and founded the first socialist party in the country’s history, which he called the “Workers’ Party.”
Over time, the party adopted more realistic political and economic positions, as they were not based on the idea of a radical change of power, but rather on what it called “creating spaces of rapprochement between disparities.”
In 1992, he supported the removal of President Melo, who was accused of various corruption cases. He was temporarily removed until he resigned from his position at the end of the year.
Lula began to formulate dreamy political ideas as president of Brazil, so he ran for president in 1994, but he was eliminated from the first round of elections. He then tried again in the elections in 1998 and lost them – also – in the first round.
His candidacy for the presidency on two occasions significantly contributed to his political rise, especially after the Workers’ Party became one of the main pillars in building the Brazilian opposition.
On October 27, 2002, Lula achieved his dream in the second round of the presidential elections by 61.5%, equivalent to 51 million votes, thus becoming the first leftist president to preside over Brazil since the establishment of the first republic in 1889.
Lula was re-elected for a second and final term according to the text of the Constitution on October 30, 2006, with a percentage of more than 60% in the second round, and his term ended in early January 2011, and he still enjoys overwhelming popularity exceeding 80%, and despite this he refused He made many demands and appeals to change the constitution so that he could remain president for a third term or for life, and he handed the presidency over to Dilma Rousseff, who won thanks to his massive support for her.
During his presidency, Brazil witnessed economic development in a period known for rising prices of raw materials. A large percentage of Brazilians emerged from poverty and rose to the middle class through social programs through which the government pumped billions of dollars with the aim of eliminating poverty and classism that had always prevailed in the country throughout history.
Lula raised the minimum wage and expanded the social programs that the state was implementing to include the most disadvantaged and poorest classes in the country through the family grants program, from which about 44 million people benefited, which contributed to enhancing his popularity among poor and marginalized circles.
From prison for the third term
Despite this, Lula’s period of rule was not immune from criticism, which included public projects that were considered expensive, and whose feasibility was questioned, in addition to the names of some of its contributors being linked to major scandals and corruption cases.
The first case occurred during his first presidential term, specifically in 2005, and was known in the media as the “big monthly payment,” and it revealed a secret plan to buy votes in Congress, which ended with the conviction of those close to Lula and jeopardized his re-election.
The second case occurred during his presidency Dilma Rousseffwhich was facing a growing economic catastrophe, as a bribery case was revealed for contracts worth millions of dollars for the state oil company “Petrobras” with construction companies, which is considered the largest corruption scandal in Latin America, in which Lula was accused of receiving services from private construction companies, and he was sentenced to prison in 2018. Charged with corruption and money laundering in a huge case led by Brazilian judge Sergio Moro.
Although Lula was ahead in the opinion polls, this conviction prevented him from running in the 2018 presidential elections after Rousseff was removed from office in a trial amid a stifling economic and political crisis. The right-wing Jair Bolsonaro won those elections, and shortly after that Moro was appointed Minister of Justice. .
Lula spent 19 months in prison and was released by the Federal Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 2021, citing “errors in the trials and Judge Sergio Moro’s lack of integrity.”
Amid a tense global economic situation, three years after the Corona pandemic, and in the atmosphere of the Russian war on Ukraine and the economic recession that plunged millions of Brazilians into poverty, on January 1, 2023, Lula assumed the presidency of Brazil for a third presidential term.
Awards and honors
- He received the Spanish Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2003.
- He was awarded the “Statesman of the Year” award in 2006.
- In 2007 he received the Lech Walesa Prize in recognition of his efforts to reduce social inequality; Because he is an advocate of peaceful understanding and partnership between nations, especially by strengthening the position of developing countries in the international community.
- He received the “Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize” in 2008, from UNESCO.
- He won the Grand Vermeil Medal from the city of Paris.
- Won the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Community Award.
- In 2012, he received the Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award.
