Latin Analysis: A Comeback for Lula?
Anadolu Agency
On March 8th, 2021, a supreme court judge shocked the country of Brazil by annulling two convictions of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known simply as Lula. This ruling is significant in that it reinstates Lula’s political rights, making him eligible to run for presidential office next year in 2022. Furthermore, the judge who convicted Lula, Sergio Moro, is now receiving his very own corruption investigation. It is alleged that Moro conspired against Lula to get him barred from running in the 2018 presidential race, which ultimately gave rise to current president Jair Bolsonaro, whom Moro acted as minister of justice for in Bolsonaro’s cabinet from 2019 to 2020.
For many, Lula’s potential bid for the presidency gives hope for positive change. Bolsonaro’s government has failed to get the pandemic under control, leading the country into a grave scenario that has crippled its public health system, economy, and democracy. However, Sergio Moro’s corruption probe signals once more the seemingly endless amount of corruption that plagues every level of Brazilian society.
Lula’s Career
Lula began his political career as a union leader for Brazil’s metalworkers’ union. He was elected president of the union in 1975, and was later arrested for campaigning against the military dictatorship’s economic policies. After his release he helped found the Workers Party, in which he ran for multiple elected positions until he was elected president in 2002. He served as the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011, where he was able to reduce poverty and grow Brazil’s economy exponentially. While the future for Brazil seemed bright, problems of crime and corruption were still boiling under the surface. But the worst was yet to come.
Operation Car Wash
In 2014, multiple business leaders and high-level government officials from multiple parties were implicated in an enormous state-wide corruption investigation led by Brazilian Federal Police. Known as Operation Car Wash- Lava Jato in Portuguese, the probe brought to light the extent of corruption among Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, who would accept bribes from several different development companies, and in return award development contracts to them at a higher price. Petrobras was also involved in extensive money laundering, embezzlement, and the funneling of money to politicians to either buy them off or for use in their campaign.
Both Lula and his Worker’s Party were heavily implicated, leading to the removal of President Dilma Rouseff from office. Multiple corruption charges were stacked onto Lula, the greatest one being that he received a beachfront residence as a kickback. He was convicted by Sergio Moro of the federal court of Curitiba, who had tried him along with other judges in an extremely accelerated process. Lula, who was widely considered to be Latin America’s most popular president and Brazil’s most admired politician, was now to be imprisoned for 12 years. Although Operation Car Wash became Latin America’s biggest corruption probe in history, its legacy has been questioned now that the probe has formally closed up shop.
A Further Conspiracy
Sergio Moro landed a job after Lula went to jail as the Minister of Justice and Public Security in Bolsonaro’s government after Lula went to jail. In the year that followed, multiple leaks about how prosecutors dealt with operation car wash came to light. A hacker unearthed private conversations between prosecutors and judges over the app Telegram, which were leaked by the Intercept. These messages revealed that the courts colluded with prosecutors to achieve a biased ruling that was first and foremost to have Lula be imprisoned and ineligible to run for office. The courts were supposed to deal with the scandals associated with Operation Car Wash in a manner that sought out to curb bribery and corruption, but instead they ruled in favor of politics.
While there were some consequences for the people involved with the leaks, they opened the gateway for Lula being released from prison. The material of the leaks ended up in the hands of the Supreme Federal Court, who now have decided to annul Lula’s convictions. They stated that the district of Curitiba did not have the proper jurisdiction to convict Lula because Operation Car Wash was largely investigated and unearthed in Rio de Janeiro. Instead, the Supreme Court stated that the cases be taken to Brasilia, Brazil’s federal capital.
Lula’s comeback is at a time for great weakness for Brazil and Brazil’s government. The pandemic continues to be heavily mismanaged there, with vaccinations rolling out incredibly slowly and new variants threatening the country’s overall recovery from Covid-19. Bolsonaro’s base has been shrinking as his administration has tried to ignore the severity of the pandemic. Bolsonaro’s own corruptive activities have also contributed to his growing unpopularity, as he ran on a platform that largely emphasized on eliminating crime and corruption. Bolsonaro has most prominently engaged in a wide effort to protect his congressmen sons, who have their own investigations regarding money laundering and embezzlement against them. Sergio Moro left his position as minister of justice in 2020 in response, stating that Bolsonaro obstructed justice and meddled with the investigation against his son Flavio. Breaking that tie however, now means the Moro is no longer under any kind of shield Bolsonaro could provide when it comes to his investigation.
Stamping out widespread corruption in Brazil took a misstep with how Lula’s case was handled by the court, but his release and allowance to participate once more in politics is a step in the right direction. Operation Car Wash officially ended its probe in 2020, so it is unclear how corruption will be handled in the future. There is a year and a half left for Brazil and Bolsonaro until the next election, and a lot can happen till then. But now Lula is back, and he presents the greatest political challenge against Bolsonaro to date.
