The Economist April 9th 2022 39
The AmericasBrazil’selectionHow corrupt was Lula?
O
n april 9th, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
commonly known as Lula, is expected
to announce he is running for the presi
dency of Brazil. For many Brazilians, it will
be a moment to savour. The last time Lula
held office, from 2003 to 2010, his welfare
programmes lifted millions out of poverty.
His gruff charisma charmed Barack Oba
ma, then the president of the United
States, who called Lula “the most popular
politician on Earth”. When he left the pres
idential palace, with 11 trucks packed with
gifts from wellwishers, his approval rat
ing was 80%. As Brazilians reel from a
poorly handled pandemic and stubborn
inflation, it is not surprising that Lula
leads Jair Bolsonaro, the populist incum
bent, by double digits in most polls.
Yet opponents prefer another superla
tive for the expresident. He is “the biggest
corruptor in Brazilian history”, Ciro
Gomes, a centreleft foe, said last year. Mr
Bolsonaro and his son Flávio, a senator,
who are themselves mired in allegations of
graft, refer to him as “the ninefingered
thief” (as a young man, Lula lost a finger ina factory accident). Rivals will not want
voters to forget that Lula was handed a 12
year sentence on charges of moneylaun
dering and corruption, and watched the
previous election from prison.
Ahead of elections in October, these two
narratives jostle for supremacy. Most sup
porters of his Workers’ Party, the pt, be
lieve him when he says he was the inno
cent victim of a conspiracy to prevent his
return to politics. Many in the business
elite believe he is a crook. The truth is
murkier and, like corruption in Brazil
more generally, maddeningly complex.
Start with the process that brought Lula
down: the “car wash” scandal, or Lava Jato.
What began in 2014 as an operation to
catch smalltime currency dealers above a
petrol station soon reached further than
anyone could have imagined. It revealed
that companies had been bribing politicians in exchange for huge contracts, ex
posing systemic corruption.
The public were furious. The probe en
tangled hundreds of businessmen and pol
iticians. It extended to 11 countries and
touched a dozen current or former Latin
American heads of state, including Lu
la. He was convicted of accepting bribes in
the form of a beachfront apartment and
renovations on a country house, neither of
which he owned. In an investigation which
recouped over $5bn in stolen money, there
were far more “vulgar” and “flagrant”
crimes, notes one Lava Jato prosecutor. But
Lula was its biggest fish.
Then the net ripped. A series of blun
ders had already undermined Lava Jato,
which had long stretched beyond its capac
ities. Leaked messages released by the In
tercept, an investigative website, revealed
that Sergio Moro, the judge, had been col
laborating with Deltan Dallagnol, the pros
ecutor, against Lula. Mr Moro’s impartiali
ty had already been thrown into question
when he became Mr Bolsonaro’s justice
minister. “The expresident was a victim of
a manhunt,” says Cristiano Zanin Martins,
Lula’s lawyer.
The Supreme Court agreed. Last year it
ruled that Mr Moro had been biased, weeks
after a justice had annulled Lula’s convic
tions. All in all, two dozen cases against Lu
la and his family have been archived, sus
pended or closed—because of tainted evi
dence, procedural errors or technicalities.
Lula, who has always denied all charges,S ÃO PAULO
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