Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist and former metalworker who has served as the 39th president of Brazil since 2023. A member of the Workers' Party, Lula was also the 35th president from 2003 to 2011.

Born in Pernambuco, Lula quit school after second grade to work, and did not learn to read until he was ten years old. As a teenager, he worked as a metalworker and became a trade unionist. Between 1978 and 1980, he led the ABC workers' strikes during Brazil's military dictatorship, and in 1980, he helped start the Workers' Party during Brazil's redemocratization. Lula was one of the leaders of the 1984 Diretas Já movement, which demanded direct elections. In 1986, he was elected a federal deputy in the state of São Paulo. He ran for president in 1989, but lost in the second round. He also lost presidential elections in 1994 and 1998. He finally became president in 2002, in a runoff. In 2006, he was successfully re-elected in the second round.

Described as left-wing, his first presidency coincided with South America's first pink tide. During his first two consecutive terms in office, he continued fiscal policies and promoted social welfare programs such as Bolsa Família that eventually led to GDP growth, reduction in external debt and inflation, and helping millions of Brazilians escape poverty. He also played a role in foreign policy, both on a regional level and as part of global trade and environment negotiations. During those terms, Lula was considered one of the most popular politicians in Brazil's history and left office with 80% approval rating. His first term was also marked by notable corruption scandals, including the Mensalão vote-buying scandal. After the 2010 Brazilian general election, he was succeeded by his former chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, and remained active in politics and gave lectures.

In July 2017, Lula was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption in the Operation Car Wash context. He was arrested in April 2018 and went on to spend a total of 580 days in prison. Lula attempted to run in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election, but was disqualified under Brazil's Ficha Limpa law. He was convicted again in February 2019, and was released from prison the following November. His two convictions were nullified in 2021 by the Supreme Federal Court, in a ruling which also found serious biases in the first case against him, also annulling all other pending cases. Once legally allowed to make another run for the presidency, Lula did so in the 2022 election and ultimately defeated the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff. Sworn in on 1 January 2023 at the age of 77, he became the oldest Brazilian president at time of inauguration, as well as the first to have defeated an incumbent president and to be elected to a third term.

During his second presidency, Lula faced the 8 January attacks on federal institutions and advanced some institutional and economic reforms, including the approval of a landmark tax reform and a new fiscal framework. Although the period saw GDP growth, lower inflation and unemployment, and a decline in income inequality, persistent fiscal deficits contributed to rising public debt and relatively high interest rates. His administration has also emphasized environmental policy, renewed international engagement, and played a leading role in negotiations that enabled the preliminary approval of the Mercosur–European Union trade agreement.

Early life

Luiz Inácio da Silva was born on 27 October 1945 (registered with a date of birth of 6 October 1945) in Caetés (then a district of Garanhuns), 250 km (160 mi) from Recife, capital of Pernambuco, a state in the Northeast of Brazil. He was the seventh of eight children of Aristides Inácio da Silva and Eurídice Ferreira de Melo, farmers who had experienced famine in one of the poorest parts of the agreste. He was raised Catholic. Lula's mother was of Portuguese and partial Italian descent. Two weeks after Lula's birth, his father moved to Santos, São Paulo, with – though Eurídice was not aware of it – her younger cousin Valdomira Ferreira de Góis.

In December 1952, when Lula was seven years old, his mother moved the family to São Paulo to rejoin her husband. After a journey of 13 days in a pau-de-arara (open truck bed), they arrived in Guarujá and discovered that Aristides had formed a second family with Valdomira, with whom he had 10 more children. Aristides's two families lived in the same house for some time, but they did not get along very well, and four years later, his mother moved with him and his siblings to a small room behind a bar in São Paulo. After that, Lula rarely saw his father, who died illiterate and an alcoholic in 1978. In 1982, he added the nickname Lula to his legal name.

Personal life

Twice a widower, Lula has been married three times, and has a daughter from a fourth relationship. In 1969, he married Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro. She died of hepatitis in 1971 while pregnant with a child, who also died.

In March 1974, Lula had a daughter, Lurian, with his then-girlfriend, Miriam Cordeiro. The two never married. Lula only began participating in his daughter's life when she was already a young adult.

Two months later, in May 1974, Lula married Marisa Letícia Rocco Casa, a 24-year-old widow whom he had met the prior year. He had three sons with her, and adopted her son from her first marriage. The two remained married for 43 years, until her death on 2 February 2017, after a stroke.

Later that same year, he met and started a relationship with Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja. The relationship only became public in 2019 while he was serving time in jail in Curitiba, Paraná, on corruption charges. Lula and Janja married on 18 May 2022.

Lula is Catholic.

Education and work

Lula had little formal education. He did not learn to read until he was ten years old. He quit school after the second grade to work. His first job at age eight was as a street vendor. When he was 12, he also worked as a shoeshiner. In 1960, when he was 14, he got his first formal job, in a warehouse.

In 1961, he started working as an apprentice of a press operator in a metallurgical company that produced screws, while studying in a vocational course. There, Lula had his first contact with strike movements. After the movement failed in its negotiations, Lula left the company for another metallurgical company. From 1966 to 1980, he worked at Villares Metals S.A, a new metalworking firm.

There, in 1974, he lost his left pinky finger in a machinery accident, while working as a press operator in the factory. After the accident, he had to run to several hospitals before he received medical attention. This experience increased his interest in participating in the Workers' Union. Around that time, he became involved in union activities and held several union posts.

Union career

Inspired by his brother Frei Chico, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, Lula joined the labour movement when he worked at Villares Metals, rising through the ranks. He was elected in 1975, and re-elected in 1978, as president of the ABC Metalworkers' Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. Both cities are located in the ABCD Region, home to most of Brazil's automobile manufacturing facilities, including Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz.

In the late 1970s, when Brazil was under military rule, Lula helped organize union activities, including major strikes. Labour courts found the strikes illegal, and in 1980, Lula was jailed for a month. Due to this, and like other people imprisoned for political activities under the military government, Lula was awarded a lifetime pension after the fall of the military regime.

Political career

On 10 February 1980, a group of academics and union leaders, including Lula, founded the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) or Workers' Party, a left-wing party with progressive ideas. In 1983, he helped found the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) trade union association.

Elections

Lula first ran for office in 1982 for the state government of São Paulo, but lost with 11% of the vote. Cuban president Fidel Castro urged him to continue on as a politician, during a trip by Lula to Cuba. In the 1986 election, Lula won a seat in the National Congress with the most votes nationwide.

In 1989, Lula ran for president as the PT candidate. Lula advocated immediate land reform and that Brazil default on its external debt. A minor candidate, Fernando Collor de Mello, quickly amassed support with a more business-friendly agenda and by taking emphatic anti-corruption positions. He beat Lula in the second round of the 1989 elections. Lula decided not to run for re-election as a Congressman in 1990.

Lula ran again for president, and lost again, in the next two Brazilian elections. Former PSDB Minister of Finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso defeated Lula who received only 27% of the vote in the presidential elections in 1994, and again, by a somewhat smaller margin, as Lula garnered only 32% of the vote in 1998.