Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Fast Facts
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is a former Brazilian president and former guerrilla leader who was elected twice as a member of the Brazilian Congress, winning with his Workers’ Party (PT) second time in 2000. After he was arrested on charges of corruption and then on an international warrant by Interpol, he was the only candidate left in the 2002 presidential election. He came second with 16% of the vote. Lula is still the richest Brazilian politician and is the second richest person in the world. He had been a member of the PT for 13 years, becoming vice president in 1986. However, by the end of 1990, Lula was being accused of having taken part in an organized crime in the state of São Paulo known as the Car Wash, which allegedly involved the smuggling of drugs and weapons by the Brazilian State and the São Paulo State Police. The scandal eventually led to his resignation as vice president. In 1992, he returned to the PT and was involved in the creation of a new political party called the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), which was renamed the Party for Socialism and Liberty (PSTL) the following year. Lula ran for president for a third time in 1998 and was elected despite his poor reputation with the people and the press. He ran again in 2002 and defeated the incumbent president Fernando Collor de Mello. In the second round of voting, he received a huge majority of 49.2%. In 2003, he was arrested in Brazil on bribery charges but was quickly released in return for an international arrest warrant being dropped. After being freed, Lula ran for president in 2006 and won a narrow victory. In February 2006, he was arrested again on charges of taking part in a plot to assassinate his former opponent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In 2008, he was elected president of Brazil on the PT ticket in elections. He was initially imprisoned in a maximum security prison in Curitiba, but in 2015 was transferred to the highest security prison in Rio de Janeiro, where he remains, pending his trial. The Lula campaign team and his wife, Marisa
