00:00He helped found a party that changed Brazilian politics, and spent almost 600 days in jail.
00:05and regained his freedom to be invested for the third time as head of state of the
00:09Latin America's greatest power.
00:10We are talking about Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, who with a project focused on policies
00:14social and Amazonian issues, has just won the elections for a fourth non-consecutive term
00:19in the neighboring country.
00:20With more than 64 million votes, he managed to prevail over his opponent Flavio Bolsonaro, son
00:25of the coup leader and imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro.
00:27This is the first time a candidate who lost the first round has managed to come back.
00:32in the runoff election and did so a few days before his 81st birthday.
00:36He is the oldest person to have held the presidency and will be the second head of state
00:40who has governed for the longest time in Brazil, 16 years, and completes the new term.
00:44Born into a family of limited means, he was the seventh of eight children and
00:48They baptized Luis Ignacio da Silva.
00:50Lula, derived from Luis, would be incorporated into his official name many years later,
00:54In 1982, this is the name by which it is known worldwide.
00:58In search of better opportunities, when he was still a child, he and his family
01:03They moved to São Paulo, the city where Lula would build his political career.
01:06There he began training as a lathe operator and, in parallel, as a political leader.
01:10He was elected alternate to the leadership of the Metalworkers Union of Sao Bernardo
01:14by Ocampo and Diadema.
01:15And after serving as first secretary, he became president of the organization in 1975.
01:20which represented about 100,000 workers.
01:22Lula, the union leader, promoted workers' mobilizations during the military dictatorship that ruled
01:27Brazil from 1964 to 1985.
01:30His growing national prominence, as a result of the strikes he led, made him uncomfortable.
01:35for the regime, which ended up intervening in the union and arresting Lula in 1979.
01:40He spent a month in prison.
01:41A year later he was among the founders of his collective, the Workers' Party.
01:46After the dictatorship ended, he was elected federal deputy for São Paulo and participated in the Assembly
01:51Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1988 Constitution.
01:53He would then begin to pursue the presidency of the country, which eluded him on three occasions,
01:58until finally in 2002 he achieved victory and again in 2006, a period in which he would have
02:02to weather the global economic crisis of 2008.
02:05The expansion of social policy marked the legacy of his first two terms, with the
02:09Bolsa Familia as one of the main standards.
02:12It was a monetary support for low-income households designed to
02:16to help lift millions of people out of poverty.
02:18It is estimated that today it benefits a quarter of the Brazilian population.
02:21Almost at the same time as she handed over the reins to her successor Dilma Rousseau, she announced a
02:25cancer diagnosis that he managed to overcome.
02:27However, the storm was just beginning, as the Lava Jato scandal would erupt in 2014.
02:32the largest corruption investigation in Latin American history.
02:35As part of this operation, Lula would be found guilty of corruption crimes.
02:39passive income and money laundering.
02:41He maintained his innocence, but in 2018 he went to prison.
02:43This prevented him from participating again in the elections that the candidate ultimately won.
02:47On the right, Jair Bolsonaro.
02:49Lula regained his freedom the following year so that, finally, in 2021, the sentences in
02:53their objections were annulled.
02:55However, his detractors continued to claim that the processes were annulled due to flaws in
02:59the procedure and that Lula did not prove his innocence, which, nevertheless, is presumed by constitution.
03:04Later, the start of his third term in 2023 would be marked by the attempt to
03:08coup d'état for which Jair Bolsonaro, now detained, would later be convicted
03:12for that reason.
03:13Lula's term began with several allies in the neighborhood, such as Gustavo Petro in Colombia,
03:18Gabriel Boric in Chile and, later, Claudio Chenbaum in Mexico.
03:21But the political map of the region would change drastically, leaving him and Chenbaum in the lurch.
03:26practically as the only influential left-wing leaders and in opposition
03:30to the growing pressure from Donald Trump in the countries of the continent.
03:33Now, Lula will begin his fourth term with the challenge of maintaining progressivism.
03:37in a region that turned to the right.
03:39However, that challenge seems secondary to the need to achieve some level of governance.
03:43after Bolsonarism prevailed in the legislature.
03:46In any case, the left-wing leader is no novice.
03:48In the past, his ability to moderate his agenda has allowed him to navigate the waters in a country
03:53which today seems more polarized than ever.
03:55External factors, such as a Democratic victory in the midterm elections in the United States
03:59Joining forces next week could help smooth the journey.
