Background

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), located 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. Two weeks after Lula's birth, his father moved to Santos, São Paulo, with Valdomira Ferreira de Góis, a cousin of Eurídice.

Education

Luiz had little formal education, instead working in various entry-level jobs since childhood.

Career

When Lula was 12 years old he got his first job - at dry-cleaners. Two years later he joined the supermarket Columbia, about which there is the first corresponding record in his service book. Despite an intensive schedule, the teenager found time to study for the turner. Then his finger was torn off by press.

Thanks to his older brother, an activist of the Communist Party of Brazil, known under the pseudonym Frei Chico, Lula joined the trade union movement. At the beginning of his political career, he urged farmers to seize the land and demanded that the government refused to pay foreign debts. He was elected the Deputy Secretary of the Executive Committee of Metal Workers' Union in San-Bernardo-Do-Campo in 1969. Trade union work gave him a quick political growth. The Head of Social Protection of the trade unions in 1975, gaining 92% of the votes, became the Chairman. There were more than 100 members of trade union that time. He was elected by 98% of people in 1978.

Lula became an active oppositionist to military dictatorship of Brazil. There were strikes across the country under his command. Despite the government ban on strikes 170,000 metallurgists made a protest in 1979. Louis instantly became known throughout the country. And he came up with the idea of creating a political party that would defend the interests of the majority of working Brazilians. The Proletarian Party was founded on February 10, 1980.

Luis Inacio didn’t gain required number of votes and was not elected the governor of the state of Sao Paulo in 1982. He was on the fourth place with about a million votes in the overall rate. Lula took part in creating a United Centre of Workers in August 1983, and was elected federal representative from the state of Sao Paulo in the National Constituent Assembly in 1986.

Luis Inacio first stood for president in 1989, but lost in the second round. He also lost trying to become president in 1994 and in 1998. In the eyes of the voters, he missed higher education, international prestige, state posts. Three failures damped down his enthusiasm, and therefore Lula promised himself that if he lost for the fourth times, he would never be a candidate. But 2002 was a happy year for him. His election campaign motto “Peace and Love” won. He had visited 93 cities and conducted 103 political meetings for 3 months preceding the election. On November 6, the Central Election Commission declared the elections valid and Inacio da Silva became the president of Brazil. Inauguration ceremony took place on January 1, 2003.

After the elections, all the oligarchs of the country supported Lula. Americans took his victory as a threat to the establishment of a free trade zone in the Western hemisphere. European leaders were more complacent.

Lula served two terms as president and left office on 1 January 2011. During his farewell speech he said he felt an additional burden to prove that he could handle the presidency despite his humble beginnings.

In 2017, Lula announced he would stand as the Workers' Party candidate for president again in the 2018 election. In September, he led a caravan of supporters to travel through the states of Brazil, starting with Minas Gerais, whose governor is Lula's political ally Fernando Pimentel. While traveling through the South of Brazil, the caravan became the target of protests. In Paraná, a campaign bus was shot, and in Rio Grande do Sul, rocks were thrown at pro-Lula militants.

Despite Lula's imprisonment in April 2018, the Workers' Party insisted in keeping Lula as the party's presidential candidate. In a poll conducted by Ibope in June 2018, Lula led with 33% of vote intentions, with the PSL candidate Jair Bolsonaro polling second with 15%. The former president negotiated a national coalition with the PCdoB and regional alliances with the Socialist Party.

The Workers' Party officially launched Lula as its candidate on 5 August 2018, in São Paulo. Actor Sérgio Mamberti read a letter written by Lula, who was unable to attend because of his prison sentence. Former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad was named as Lula's running mate and intended to represent Lula in events and debates. In the event that Lula be declared ineligible, Haddad will replace Lula as candidate, with Manuela d'Ávila replacing Haddad as the vice presidential candidate.

In response to an appeal considering Lula as a political prisoner, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled on 17 August 2018 that it had requested the Brazilian government to allow Lula to exercise his political rights.

In a 26 August poll, Lula had 39 percent of vote intentions within one month of the first round. The same opinion polling put Lula ahead of all his challengers in a second-round run-off, including the nearest one, PSL candidate Jair Bolsonaro, by 52 to 32.

Lula's candidacy was denied by the Superior Electoral Court on 31 August 2018, when the majority of the seven-judge panel voted to bar Lula from running in the presidential race.

On 11 September 2018, Lula officially dropped out of the election and was replaced by former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad, whom Lula endorsed.

In early February 2019 Lula was convicted in another corruption case. This time he was sentenced to an additional 12 years and 11 months in prison for having accepted bribes from construction companies in the form of a $235,000 renovation of a country home. Lula again refuted the charges, but the presiding judge found Lula’s claim that he was not the formal owner of the house unconvincing.

Achievements

• Luiz da Silva is known as a former president of Brazil who expanded government antipoverty programs while maintaining stability in Brazil's financial relationships with the rest of the world. He was rated the most popular Brazilian president of all time with an 80.5% approval rate in his last months as the president. He has received numerous medals, such as the Brazilian Order of Merit, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the Norwegian Order of Royal Merit and many others. In 2010, Time magazine named Lula one of the most influential leaders of the world.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lula: Tengo UN Sueno

    (Presents five speeches given by the charismatic Brazilian...)

    2004
  • Truth Will Prevail: Why I Was Condemned

    (One of the great populist leaders of the left, Lula - tog...)

    2018

Religion

Silva was raised Roman Catholic.

Politics

Luiz da Silva is a founding member of the Workers’ Party.

Views

Silva has nothing against the legalization of light drugs and against the adopting of children by same-sex families. He believes the relatives themselves must make a decision about euthanasia, if death is obvious, but he is against the death penalty, compulsory military service, and human cloning.

As president he planned to create the economy with tough control over the distribution of income. In foreign policy, he did not show preference to the alliance with a specific country.

In plans of politician - the struggle against hunger, poverty, corruption and inflation, financial assistance to poor people, giving help to addicts, pension reform, the creation of four million places for pupils, unification of all education and a lot of other things aimed at the whole improvement of life in Brazil.

Quotations: “I didn't want my children to work in the rice fields, I wanted them to go to school and get good jobs."

“You're going to be hearing a lot about one scrappy president.”

“My greatest desire is that the hope that has overcome fear in my country will help vanquish it around the world.”

“There are no people 100% good, as there are no 100% bad.”

“There are no human 100% smart, as there are no 100% dumb.”

Personality

Lula loves not only meeting with friends, but especially preparing for them. His speciality is rabbit in wine. Newspapers and television he prefers more than books. The President himself admits that “if the book is volume I read the annotation and put it off. And never come back to it.”

He prefers Brazilian vodka from sugar cane of strong drinks. Cigars, which regularly sends to him Fidel Castro he gives friends. The President himself prefers cigarettes. He doesn’t use a mobile phone.

As a child, like all the boys he wanted to be a great football player. Even now he plays football with pleasure with his grandchildren and also plays golf.

Quotes from others about the person

• US President Barack Obama greeted Lula at the G20 summit in London (April 2009) by saying: "That's my man right there...love this guy...The most popular politician on earth."

Interests

• Cooking

• Sport & Clubs

  Football, golf

Connections

Lula was married twice. In 1969, he married Maria de Lourdes, who died of hepatitis in 1971, while pregnant with their first son, who also died. Lula and Miriam Cordeiro had a daughter, Lurian, born out of wedlock in 1974. In 1974, Lula married Marisa Letícia Rocco Casa, a widow with whom he then had three sons. He also adopted Casa's son from her first marriage. They remained married until her death on 2 February 2017 after a stroke.

Spouse:

Marisa Letícia Rocco Casa

late spouse:

Maria de Lourdes da Silva

Son:

Fábio Luís da Silva

Son:

Luís Cláudio da Silva

Son:

Marcos Cláudio da Silva

Son:

Sandro Luís da Silva

Daughter:

Lurian Cordeiro da Silva

ex-girlfriend:

Miriam Cordeiro

References

• Lula, the Workers' Party and the Governability Dilemma in Brazil
• Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva