Brazil: 'Free or jailed' Lula will be president, says Dilma

May 3, 2018
Issue 
Lula release a letter to his supporters on May 1, telling them to 'continue to resist together because we’re in this just cause for democracy, for the rights of the people'.

Whether “free or imprisoned,” Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “will be elected president” of Brazil following October's general election, said former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, speaking during a visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 1.

Dilma said the recent attacks on Lula and the Workers’ Party are all part of a “lawfare” against the left in the country. 

She explained that his political opponents need Lula imprisoned because they “lack a candidate” capable of winning the upcoming election and linked the move to the "parliamentary coup” that led to her impeachment in 2016.

On May Day, Brazilians flooded cities with thousands of protesters demanding jobs and Lula’s release. Central Workers’ Union head Vagner Freitas said Judge Sergio Moro, who is in charge of the Car Wash corruption scandal hearings, wants to "prevent (a Lula) victory" in the presidential elections.

Lula also release another letter to his supporters on May 1, telling them to "continue to resist together because we’re in this just cause for democracy, for the rights of the people".

Having been detained at the federal police headquarters in Curitiba since April 7, for supposedly receiving an apartment as a kickback in the national Car Wash corruption scandal, Lula also denounced the April 28 drive-by shooting on the Free Lula camp.

Two people were injured, with one said to be in serious condition with a bullet wound that penetrated his neck. Nobody has been arrested in relation to the armed assault.

Despite his imprisonment, Lula has topped every electoral poll this year.

Lula's two terms in office were marked by a slew of social programs, lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and removing the country from the United Nations World Hunger Map. He left office with a record approval rating of 83% in 2011, according to Datafolha.

[Abridged from TeleSUR English.]

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