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Despite charges, Brazil's Lula eyes another run
Sarah Dilorenzo, Associated Press Updated 6:54 am, Friday, February 17, 2017
SAO PAULO (AP) — He is facing several corruption charges, Brazil's largest-ever graft probe has decimated the political party he founded and his hand-picked successor was impeached and ousted from office.
Yet former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known to Brazilians simply as Lula, is topping polls for next year's presidential race and traveling the country to make the case that he can bring the boom times back to Latin America's largest nation.
"Lula has the 'I can make Brazil great again'" angle, said Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, based in Washington.
The political return of Silva seems as inevitable to Brazilians as it is strange to outsiders. Despite the charges against him, the charismatic ex-president remains a larger-than-life figure here: a folksy former union leader and workingman who fought for democracy during the country's dictatorship and then oversaw its rise to economic global power. His time in office, from 2003 to 2010, coincided with Brazil's unprecedented boom, and he is revered by many for using those gains to pull millions out of poverty.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Despite-charges-Brazil-s-Lula-eyes-another-run-10939556.php