kids encyclopedia robot

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Portrait of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Official portrait, 2023
President of Brazil
Assumed office
1 January 2023
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin
Preceded by Jair Bolsonaro
In office
1 January 2003 – 31 December 2010
Vice President José Alencar
Preceded by Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Succeeded by Dilma Rousseff
National President of the Workers' Party
In office
15 July 1990 – 24 January 1994
Preceded by Luiz Gushiken
Succeeded by Rui Falcão
In office
9 August 1980 – 17 January 1988
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Olívio Dutra
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
27 March 1987 – 1 February 1991
Constituency São Paulo
In office
1 February 1987 – 25 February 1991
Constituency São Paulo
Personal details
Born
Luiz Inácio da Silva

(1945-10-27) 27 October 1945 (age 78)
Caetés, Pernambuco, Brazil
Political party PT (since 1980)
Other political
affiliations
FE Brasil (since 2022)
Spouses
Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro
(m. 1969; died 1971)
(m. 1974; died 2017)
Rosângela da Silva
(m. 2022)
Children 5
Residence Palácio da Alvorada
Education National Service for Industrial Training
Occupation Metalworker, trade unionist
Signature Lula (Signature of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva)

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), also known as Lula da Silva or simply Lula, is a Brazilian politician who is the 39th and current president of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Party, he was also the 35th president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. At age 77, he was sworn in on 1 January 2023, as the oldest Brazilian president at the time of inauguration. He has also held the presidency of the G20 since 2023.

In his first tenure as president, Lula created social programs including Bolsa Família and Fome Zero, which helped fight against poverty and the lower class citizens of Brazil. He also had an important role in international politics such as the nuclear program of Iran and climate change. He helped lower deforestation in the Amazons. His second term became controversial because of many scandals, such as the Mensalão scandal. However, after leaving office, he was seen as one of the most popular presidents in Brazil's history and most popular leader of the world. Lula is a popular figure in Brazilian politics and his ideas have been called Lulism.

In early 2016, Lula was appointed Chief of Staff under his successor Dilma Rousseff, but his appointment was blocked because of federal investigations against him at the time. In July 2017, Lula was convicted on charges of money laundering and corruption in a controversial trial, and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. After an unsuccessful appeal, Lula was arrested in April 2018 and spent 580 days in jail. In 2021, his sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of Brazil because his jail sentence was seen as politically motivated.

Lula ran for president again in 2018, however dropped out after being charged for bribery. In May 2021, Lula said he would run for a third term in the 2022 general election, against the incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro. In October 2022 in the run-off election, Lula would beat Bolsonaro, winning 50.9% of the vote.

Early life

Lula was born in Caetés, Pernambuco to Aristides Inácio da Silva and Eurídice Ferreira de Melo. He was raised Roman Catholic. Lula was raised in São Paulo. His family lived in poverty.

He did not learn to read until he was ten years old and quit school after the second grade to work and help his family.

He studied at National Service for Industrial Training to become a metalworker. He lost the little finger on his left hand at 19 in an accident, while working as a press operator. It was because of this injury, he became more active in the labor unions and labour rights movement.

Union career

Lula joined the labour movement when he worked at Villares Metals S.A.. He was elected in 1975, and reelected in 1978, as president of the Steel Workers' Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema.

In the late 1970s, when Brazil was under military rule, Lula helped organize union activities, including major strikes. He was in jail for a month because under the military rule, his strikes were seen as illegal. Lula was awarded a lifetime pension after the fall of the military regime.

Legislative career

On 10 February 1980, Lula co-founded the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) or Workers' Party. That same year, he became National President of the Workers' Party and was in this role until 1988. In 1982, he added the nickname Lula to his legal name. In 1983, he helped found the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) union association.

In 1987, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. During his time as a deputy, he helped write the country's post-military rule constitution. He also focused on agricultural land reform and for fixing the country's debt. He decided not to run for re-election in 1990. He became Workers' Party President again in 1990 and he left the role in 1994.

Early presidential campaigns

Lula first ran for President of Brazil in 1989 and lost the election to Fernando Collor de Mello. He ran for president again in 1994 and came in second place again, losing to Fernando Henrique Cardoso. He would lose to Henrique Cardoso again in 1998.

First presidency

In 2002, Lula was elected President of Brazil, beating José Serra in a landslide victory. In 2006, he was re-elected in another landslide victory, beating Geraldo Alckmin.

Lula created a housing aid program to fix housing problems and help people in poverty have homes.

During Lula's first term, child hunger decreased by 46%. In May 2010, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) awarded Lula da Silva the title of "World Champion in the Fight against Hunger". Lula also fixed the country's economy by fixing its debt, and help make the economy strong enough for foreign banks to make investments and profits in Brazil again.

His second term as president, focused on environmental issues and created protection programs on indigenous lands and stopped deforestation in the Amazons. However, his second term was also controversial because of the Mensalão scandal, which said that Lula da Silva's party, the Workers' Party, had bribed Deputies to support and pass pro-Lula legislation.

When he left office, Lula da Silva was extremely popular, with many calling him Brazil's most popular president and the most popular politician in the world.

2018 presidential campaign

Lula da Silva 2015 (cropped)
Lula in 2015

In 2017, Lula announced he would run as the Workers' Party candidate for president again in the 2018 election. His campaign was controversial and a target of attacks. In Paraná, a campaign bus was shot, and in Rio Grande do Sul, rocks were thrown at a Lula campaign bus. Despite this, he was seen as the front-runner to win the election.

While bribe charges against Lula were being held, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled on 17 August 2018 that it had requested the Brazilian government to allow Lula to be political and run for office. Despite this, Lula was charged and was forced to withdraw his campaign.

Bribe charges and release

On July 12, 2017, the former president was convicted at first instance of corruption (more specifically, the crime of passive corruption which in Brazilian criminal law is defined by the receipt of a bribe by a civil servant or government official) and money laundering and sentenced to nine years and six months in prison by judge Sérgio Moro. This made him ineligible to run for president in the 2018 election, and he dropped out of the election.

In 2021, his sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of Brazil and all charges were cleared and seen as politically motivated.

Second presidency (2023–present)

Alberto Fernández y Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva en São Paulo 2022 (2)
Lula with President of Argentina Alberto Fernández in October 2022

In May 2021, Lula stated that he would run for a third term in the October 2022 general election, against the incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, with opinion polls at the end of July 2021 suggesting he would comfortably beat Bolsonaro. He was 17% ahead of Bolsonaro in a poll in January 2022.

In April 2022, Lula announced that his running mate would be Geraldo Alckmin, a three-term governor of São Paulo state who ran against Lula in the 2006 presidential elections.

On 2 October, the vote of the first round, Lula was in first place with 48.43% of the electorate, qualifying for the second round with Bolsonaro, who received 43.20% of the votes. Lula was elected in the second round on 30 October, three days after his seventy-seventh birthday. He became the first president of Brazil elected to three terms and the first since Getúlio Vargas to serve in non-consecutive terms. He is also the first candidate to unseat an incumbent president. He was sworn in on 1 January 2023.

10.02.2023 - Reunião com o Presidente dos Estados Unidos da América, Joe Biden (52681638789)
Lula and US President Joe Biden at the White House on 10 February 2023
14.04.2023 - Cerimônia Oficial de Recepção (52818376512)
Lula and the Chinese President Xi Jinping, April 2023
22.06.2023 - Jantar oferecido pelo Presidente da República Francesa, Emmanuel Macron, e pela Senhora Brigitte Macron (52994409004)
Lula meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, 22 June 2023

Lula said that his main commitments were: the reconstruction of the country in the face of the economic crisis; democracy, sovereignty and peace; economic development and stability; fighting poverty; education; implementation of a National System of Culture and the expansion of housing programs.

In March 2023 Lula reinforced the Bolsa Família program. The program was created during the first term of Lula and then significantly cut by Jair Bolsonaro. The program should help around 60 million Brazilians suffering from poverty. According to the World Bank estimates, the reinforced program will reduce the poverty rate in Brazil to 24.3% - the level before COVID-19 pandemic.

In August 2023, Lula announced a vast infrastructure investment program of over $350 billion over four years. Part of this sum is earmarked to finance the "My home, my life" social housing project. The program also includes 100 billion for energy and 65 billion for transport and roads. Education and health are also concerned, with the construction of schools and hospitals. The project also aims to boost economic growth and develop clean energy.

At the beginning of September, he presented a major plan to eradicate hunger, as 33 million Brazilians do not have enough to eat, and more than half the country is affected to varying degrees by some form of food insecurity. To this end, he set up a national network of food banks to prevent wastage, increased the budget allocated to school meals and increased the purchase of food from family farms to supply public canteens. These measures are part of a broader policy to build social housing and raise the minimum wage and other social benefits. The fight against world hunger is also high on the Brazilian president's international agenda.

In the first quarter of 2023 Brazilian economy grew by 1.9%. In the second quarter by 0.9%, 3 times more than expected, while many of the neighbors of Brazil saw a shrinkage in their economy. The possible reasons of this phenomenon include reduced inflation, a good harvest, and an improved credit rating.

Environment

Global Biofuels Alliance at G20 New Delhi 2023
Launch of the Global Biofuel Alliance at the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit

During his campaign Lula pledged to end illegal logging. In 2004, Lula presented a road map for curbing deforestation. It was part of a bigger plan, "The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon", and among other goals sought to decrease deforestation in the Amazon by 80% by 2020. This plan was largely responsible for the 83% decrease in the Amazon deforestation rate in the years 2004 through 2012, but it was suspended during Bolsonaro's presidency. Lula re-affirmed the plan's goals in his third term, with a new target of zero illegal deforestation by the year 2030. The plan includes different measures for creating a sustainable economy in the Amazon region, like bioeconomy, rural credits and managed fishing.

In the first 7 months of 2023 the deforestation rate in the Amazon had fallen by 42%. In July 2023 the deforestation rate was 66% lower than in July 2022. According to Amazon Conservation's MAAP forest monitoring program, the deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon from the 1 of January to the 8 of November 2023 decreased by 59% in comparison to the same period in 2022, while Columbia, Peru and Bolivia also reduced deforestation. As a result, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest as a whole declined by 55.8%.

Amazon CIAT (5)
Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil

Lula pledged to recognize 14 new indigenous reserves. Six were recognized as of May 2023. Lula and the American president Joe Biden committed to work together on the issue.

In April Biden pledged to give 500 million dollars to the Amazon Fund which was frozen during the rule of Bolsonaro, Lula's predecessor, and reactivated when Lula returned to power, as a "part of the two nations' efforts to deal with climate change". According to John Kerry, the overall financial help from US to Brazil for stopping deforestation through different channels will be around 2 billion US dollars.

Several hours after Lula talked about leaving fossil fuels at COP 28, his government held an auction in which it offered 603 territorial blocks for oil extraction. The territories cover 2% of the territory of Brazil, overlap with many protected areas or areas belonging to indigenous people and can result in a release of 1 gigaton of CO2.

Personal life

Lula was married to Maria de Lurdes Ribeiro from 1969 until her death in 1971. He was later married to Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva from 1974 until her death in 2017. In 2022, he married Rosângela da Silva. Lula has five children.

Health

In 2011, Lula, who was a smoker for 40 years, was diagnosed with throat cancer. He underwent chemotherapy, leading to a successful recovery.

Honours and awards

The list of Lula's awards since 2003:

National honours

Ribbon bar Honour Date & Comment Ref.
BRA - Order of the Southern Cross - Grand Cross BAR.svg Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
BRA Ordem de Rio Branco Gra-Cruz BAR.svg Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
BRA Ordem do Merito Militar Gra-cruz.png Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
Order of Naval Merit - Grand Cross (Brazil) - ribbon bar.png Grand Cross of the Order of Naval Merit 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
BRA Ordem do Mérito Aeronáutico Grã-Cruz.png Grand Cross of the Order of Aeronautical Merit 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
Ordem do mérito judiciario militar.png Grand Cross of the Order of Military Judicial Merit 2003 – automatic upon taking presidential office
National Order of Merit - Grand Cross (Brazil) - ribbon bar.png Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit 2013

Foreign honours

Ribbon bar Country Honour Date Ref.
National Order of Merit - Athir v.1 (Algeria) - ribbon bar.gif  Algeria Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit 7 February 2006
BEN National Order of Dahomey - Grand Cross BAR.png  Benin Grand Cross of the National Order of Benin 17 March 2013
BOL Order of Condor of the Andes - Grand Cross BAR.png  Bolivia Collar of the Order of the Condor of the Andes 17 December 2007
Amílcar Cabral Order - 1st Class (Cabo Verde).png  Cape Verde Grand Cross of Amílcar Cabral Order 29 July 2004
Order of Boyacá - Extraordinary Grand Cross (Colombia) - ribbon bar.png  Colombia Grand Collar of the Order of Boyacá 14 December 2005
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Communist.png  Cuba Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes 20 December 2019
Order of the Elephant Ribbon bar.svg  Denmark Knight of the Order of the Elephant 12 September 2007
Ribbon bar of Orden Nacional de San Lorenzo.png  Ecuador Grand Collar of the National Order of San Lorenzo 6 June 2013
GAB Order of the Equatorial Star - Grand Cross BAR.png  Gabon Grand Cross of the Order of the Equatorial Star 28 July 2004
Ribbon bar of the Order of the Star of Ghana.gif  Ghana Companion of the Order of the Star of Ghana 13 April 2005
Medalha Amílcar Cabral  Guinea-Bissau Member of the Order of Amílcar Cabral 25 August 2010
GUY Order of Excellence of Guyana ribbon bar.png  Guyana Member of the Order of Excellence of Guyana 25 November 2010
MEX Order of the Aztec Eagle 1Class BAR.png  Mexico Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle 3 August 2007
St Olavs Orden storkors stripe.svg  Norway Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav 7 October 2003
Den kongelige norske fortjenstorden storkors stripe.svg  Norway Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit 13 September 2007
Grand Collar of the Order of the State of Palestine ribbon.svg  Palestine Grand Collar of the State of Palestine 2010
Ribbon Order Omar Torrijos Herrera.svg  Panama Grand Cross of the Order of Omar Torrijos Herrera 10 August 2007
PER Order of the Sun of Peru - Grand Cross BAR.png  Peru Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun 25 August 2003
PRT Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword - Grand Cross BAR.png  Portugal Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword 5 March 2008
PRT Order of Liberty - Grand Collar BAR.svg  Portugal Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty 23 July 2003
PRT Order of Camões - Grand Collar BAR.svg  Portugal Grand Collar of the Order of Camões 22 April 2023
Order of Isabella the Catholic - Sash of Collar.svg  Spain Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic 2003
Spange des König-Abdulaziz-Ordens.png  Saudi Arabia Chain of the Order of Abdulaziz Al Saud 2009
Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo (ribbon bar).gif  South Africa Member of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo 2011
Order of the Seraphim - Ribbon bar.svg  Sweden Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim 2007
Order Of Ummayad (Syria) - ribbon bar.gif  Syria Member First Class of the Order of the Umayyads 2010
Ukraine-republic007.png  Ukraine Member First Class of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise 2003
Order of Freedom of Ukraine.png  Ukraine Member of the Order of Liberty 2009
Order of the Bath UK ribbon.svg  United Kingdom Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 2006
ZAM Order of the Eagle of Zambia ribbon.svg  Zambia Grand Commander of the Order of the Eagle of Zambia 2010

Foreign awards

Country Award Date Ref.
 Spain Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation October 2003
 Portugal Honoris Causa Doctor in Economics, University of Coimbra March 2011
 France Doctor Honoris Causa, Sciences Po Paris September 2011
 Poland Lech Wałęsa Prize September 2011
 United Kingdom Honorary President of Young Labour (UK) October 2018
 France Honorary citizen of Paris March 2020
 Argentina Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Nacional de Rosario May 2020
 Uruguay Más Verde Prize January 2023

In popular culture

Academy Award-nominated film director Fábio Barreto directed the 2009 Brazilian film Lula, Son of Brazil that depicts the life of Lula up to 35 years of age. The film was a commercial and critical failure. Critics charged that it was election propaganda, fostering a cult of personality.

The series The Mechanism on Netflix deals with Operation Car Wash and features a character that alludes to Lula, João Higino, played by Arthur Kohl.

The 2019 documentary The Edge of Democracy, written and directed by Petra Costa, chronicled the rise and fall of Lula and Dilma Rousseff and the socio-political upheaval in Brazil during the period.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva para niños

kids search engine
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.