Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made a comeback. Lula defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to be re-elected as the country’s President. This win marks the end of the country’s most right-wing government in decades.
Who is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva?
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, is the co-founder of the Workers’ Party. He served two terms as the President of Brazil between 2003 and 2010.
Former US President Barack Obama once called him “the most popular politician on Earth.”
He is remembered for leading the country through a period of economic growth. His economic reforms lifted an estimated 20 million people out of extreme poverty. He also turned Brazil into a key player on the international stage.
But soon, he was mired in a massive corruption scandal. For the same, he was jailed in 2018, the year Bolsonaro won. Last year, the Supreme Court threw out his convictions.
Lula’s win has come as an opposition to the leadership of far-right Bolsonaro. During Bolsonaro’s regime, Brazil saw the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 7,00,000 registered deaths, and a troubled economy.
Lula has highlighted the need for peace, democracy, and opportunity in Brazil. He has promised gender and racial equality, and an end to the hunger crisis affecting over 33 million Brazilians. He is also a climate-change advocate and has vowed to protect the Amazon rainforest.
The ‘pink tide’
The term ‘pink tide’ is used to describe the wave of leftist governments that emerged in the early 2000s in Latin America. It started with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, as well as Lula himself.
Countries over the following decade swung to the right. Now, the pink tide seems to be making a comeback. Last year, Peru, Chile and Honduras voted for left-wing governments, while Colombia in June elected its first leftist president