Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazilian Portuguese: [luˈiz iˈnasju ˈlulɐ dɐ ˈsiwvɐ] ; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945),[1] also known as Lula da Silva or simply Lula, is a Brazilian politician who is the 39th and current president of Brazil since 2023. A member of the Workers' Party, Lula was also the 35th president from 2003 to 2011. He also holds the presidency of the G20 since 2023.
"Lula" redirects here. For other uses, see Lula (disambiguation).
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
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$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#0__call_to_action.textDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$In popular culture[edit]
Academy Award-nominated film Brazilian director Fábio Barreto directed the 2009 Brazilian biographical film Lula, Son of Brazil that depicts the life of Lula up to 35 years of age.[393] Upon its release, it was the most expensive Brazilian film ever.[394] The film was a commercial and critical failure.[395][396] Critics charged that it was election propaganda, fostering a cult of personality.[397][398][399]
The Netflix Brazilian series The Mechanism deals with Operation Car Wash, and has a character inspired by Lula, who is referred to as João Higino in the series.[400][401]
The 2019 Brazilian documentary The Edge of Democracy, written and directed by Petra Costa, chronicled the rise and fall of Lula and Dilma Rousseff, and the socio-political upheaval in Brazil during the period.[402]
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 workers' strikes during Brazil's military dictatorship, and in 1980 he helped start the Workers' Party during Brazil's political opening. 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 went on to also lose two other presidential elections, both in 1994, and then in 1998. He finally became president in 2002, in a runoff. In 2006, he was re-elected in the second round.
Described as left-wing, his first presidency coincided with South America's first pink tide and was marked by the consolidation of social welfare programs such as Bolsa Família and Fome Zero. During his two terms in office, he undertook reforms which eventually led to growth in GDP, reduction in public debt and inflation, and helping 20 million 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.[2] During his first two terms, Lula was considered one of the most popular politicians in Brazil's history while president, and one of the most popular in the world.[3][4][5][6] His first term was marked by notable 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 a trial, after which he spent a total of 580 days in prison. He attempted to run in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election, but was disqualified under Brazil's Ficha Limpa law; he was released the following year in 2019, and his conviction was nullified in 2021 by the Supreme Court. The same ruling, which also found serious biases in the case against him, also annulled all other pending cases against him. Now legally allowed to make another run for president, he 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 is the oldest Brazilian president at time of inauguration, as well as the first-ever candidate to have defeated an incumbent president and to be elected to a third term.
Early life[edit]
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 (150 miles) 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.[7] He was raised Roman Catholic.[8] Lula's mother was of Portuguese and partial Italian descent.[9] 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.[10]
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.[11] 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.[12][13] In 1982, he added the nickname Lula to his legal name.[14]
Personal life[edit]
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.[15] She died of hepatitis in 1971 while pregnant with a child, who also died.[16]
In March 1974, Lula had an illegitimate daughter, Lurian, with his then-girlfriend, Miriam Cordeiro.[15] The two never married. Lula only began participating in his daughter's life when she was already a young adult.[17]
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.[15] The two remained married for 43 years, until her death on 2 February 2017 after a stroke.[18]
Still in 2017, 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.[19] Lula and Janja married on 18 May 2022.[20]
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Union career[edit]
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.[26] He was elected in 1975, and re-elected in 1978, as president of the Steel Workers' 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.[13]
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First post-presidency[edit]
Health[edit]
On 29 October 2011, it was announced that Lula, a former smoker, had a malignant tumor in his larynx.[227] His tumor was detected after his voice became unusually hoarse.[228] He had chemotherapy to counteract the tumor.[229] He was later treated with radiation therapy, and his laryngeal cancer went into remission. Lula announced his recovery in March 2012.[230]
On 21 January 2021, Lula tested positive for COVID-19 while participating in the filming of an Oliver Stone documentary in Cuba, five days after arriving on the island. He did not need to be admitted to a hospital, and was able to recover.[231] On 13 March 2021, Lula received his first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine.[232]
In October 2023 Lula had hip joint replacement surgery to implant a hip prosthesis, replacing the top of his right femur with an implant to treat his arthrosis.[233][234]
[235] He also had a blepharoplasty, a cosmetic plastic surgery to remove excess skin from both of his eyelids.[233][236][234]
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Position established
São Paulo
PT (since 1980)
FE Brasil (since 2022)
5
Metalworker, trade unionist
