Lula da Silva

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 2nd, 2012
Hi, old friend! Obama and Rousseff in Brasilia in March. [Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR]

In one of her last official appearances of 2011, on December 22, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, arrived in a sweltering gymnasium in downtown Sao Paulo to give a speech to a few hundred working-class social activists.

In her speech, she mentioned “Lula” more than 10 times.

At one point the audience briefly broke into chants of “Lula, Lula, Lula!”

Lula wasn’t even present.

“Lula” is Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the wildly popular and charismatic former president of this country.

This is the man who in 2009 told a ballroom of CEOs at a regional World Economic Forum meeting in Rio de Janeiro he was going to scrap the speech his advisors had prepared and instead gave a blistering and empassioned critique of how the rich, developed nations were resonsible for the global economic mess and it was poor all over the world paying the price.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on November 16th, 2011
Lula shaves his iconic beard.

I was once at a dinner party in the United States not too long ago, when a guest asked me a simple, straight-forward question: “Is that guy with the beard still the president down there in Brazil?”

The guy with the beard.

I chucked, and answered, no, the bearded guy is no longer president. It’s now a woman. The guest, who admitted to not following Brazil news that closely, gave me a quizzical look and then I think the conversation quickly moved on to the weather or something like that.  

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Lula da Silva and his famous beard when he was president of Brazil [Getty] 

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on June 9th, 2011
AFP picture

 

Cesare Battisti.

In Italy, he’s a convicted murderer, alleged terrorist and international fugitive responsible for four killings in the 1970’s during his time with the radical Armed Proletarians for Communism group in his home country.

In Brazil, Battisti is a political refugee - and as of the past 24 hours - free to walk the streets.

Yes, we are talking about the same man here.

It’s a long and complicated story, Google him or read here for more background. But the bottom line is that Battisti was arrested in Brazil in 2007 because he had an international arrest warrant in his name.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on March 24th, 2011
Celebration after the nuclear accord between Brazil, Turkey and Iran was signed last year. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

Iran and Brazil. My, oh, my.

By Teresa Bo in Americas on October 30th, 2010
Picture from AFP

Brazil has changed in the past years and even though poverty and inequality continue to exist in Sao Paulo's poorest areas, those changes are evident. Brazil’s most important banks have opened branches in two of this city's largest slums, surrounding the area there are restaurants, supermarkets and electronic shops…. This talks about how much purchasing power has changed. President Lula Da Silva is credited for taking around 20 million people out of poverty and it’s in these areas where those changes are seen the most…

There is an air of tranquility in Brazil if you compare it to previous elections. In the past, there was uncertainty before an election.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on September 26th, 2010
AFP photo

What is art?

That is the question many Brazilians have been forced to ask themselves after the country’s most important alternative art show displayed nine drawings depicting the assassination of world leaders.

Each charcoal drawing shows the artist, Gil Vicente of Recife, Brazil, holding a weapon moments before assassinating a world leader.

The exhibition is titled “Enemies” and is seen in the photo above.

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Photo: Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

One drawing depicts Vicente, the artist, holding a knife to the throat of Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Others show the artist pointing a gun at Pope Benedict XVI, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Queen Elizabeth.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on June 6th, 2010
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. (AFP)

A new poll was released Sunday in Brazil that shows the race to see who will replace Lula as Brazil’s next president is as close as ever.

The two front runners - Jose Serra, the Sao Paulo governor; and Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s chief of staff - are exactly tied at 37% of the vote, according to the poll conducted by Ibope on behalf of O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper and Rede Globo.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on April 25th, 2010

lulaafp565.jpg

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on November 28th, 2009
Photo by AFP
It was billed as a summit of presidents of Amazon countries. But most of the presidents didn’t bother to show up, making the ‘summit of presidents’ in Manaus one with few actual presidents in attendance.
 
About half of the mysterious place called "the Amazon" is in Brazil. The other half is divided between 8 other countries - Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
 
So Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, organised Thursday's one-day summit of Amazon countries as a chance for them to come together a forge a common agenda ahead of the all important Copenhagen climate change summit starting on December 7 - which is being billed as the biggest climate change meeting in generations.
By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on November 22nd, 2009
Photo from AFP
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making a one-day stop in Brasilia, Brazil on Monday for meetings with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It will be the third meeting between the two leaders, and the first time for an Iranian president to come to Brazil. The visit comes just a few days after Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas dropped in for official visits with Lula. This has led to speculation, which I touched on in a previous post, about Brazil perhaps trying to take a more active diplomatic role in the peace process in the Middle East.
 
Lula seems to relish the idea.  And he is not trying to damper the expectations, just the opposite. In fact, on Sunday, he said this:
 

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