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News > Latin America

Brazilian Prosecutor Say He 'Sees No Reason' to Detain Lula as Former President Pledges to Clear His Name

  • Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives at Federal Justice, with senator Gleisi Hoffmann (R) for a testimony in Curitiba, Brazil, May 10, 2017.

    Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives at Federal Justice, with senator Gleisi Hoffmann (R) for a testimony in Curitiba, Brazil, May 10, 2017. | Photo: REUTERS

Published 19 January 2018
Opinion

"There is no way to fix this country if the working people and poor people are not part of the economy of this country,” Lula said.

Brazilian prosecutor Mauricio Gotardo Gerum has affirmed that he "sees no reason" to request the provisional detainment of former President Luiz Inacio 'Lula' da Silva. Yesterday the Federal Public Ministry of Brazil published a statement indicating that "Gerum has not formalized and sees no reason to formalize any request in connection with the provisional detention."

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The statement comes as the former President continues to campaign ahead of October's presidential elections in Brazil.  

Speaking before a crowd of over 1,000 supporters in an auditorium in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, Lula said judge Sergio Moro, prosecutors, investigating police and others “started a case of lies against the Workers' Party” and against him due to his accomplishments while in office.

"I want to prove to them that there is no way to fix this country if the working people and poor people are not part of the economy of this country,"  he told a cheering crowd. "If they don't know how to do it, excuse me, they should let a lathe operator back in to fix this country." 

Having experienced drought, famine, plagues and abject poverty during his childhood in Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco, Lula would never forget his less than humble beginnings, nor working as a shoeshine boy in 1953, when the people of Brazil elected him president in 2003.

Lula introduced a slew of social programs to mark his two terms in office, lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and removing the country from the U.N. World Hunger Map. When the World Food Program hailed the country as a champion in the fight against hunger, former Social Development Minister Tereza Campello said, “leaving the Hunger Map is a historic milestone for Brazil." 

"We are very proud because overcoming hunger was a priority for the Brazilian state," she added.

Lula also made significant improvements in housing and education, which stand in contrast to those who governed the country in the past.

Having left office with a record approval rating of 83 percent, according to Datafolha, he now leads upcoming presidential polls conducted by Vox Populi, Datafolha, Data Poder 360, Instituto Parana, the National Confederation of Transportation/MDA and Ipsos.

Brazil's Fourth Regional Federal Court, TRF-4, will rule on Lula's passive corruption case next Wednesday, Jan. 24. Some argue that the trial was scheduled in a loathsome twist of planning as it falls on the one year anniversary of his wife's stroke that led to her death.

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