As 'Lula' Sits in Brazil Jail, Party Nominates Him for President

[Judi Lynn]

Supporters of the former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last month in São Paulo.

Credit Miguel Schincariol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Shasta Darlington
Aug. 5, 2018

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s face was everywhere at the Workers’ Party national convention: T-shirts featured him as a young metalworker, posters showed him as a seasoned politician wading through crowds and hundreds of supporters donned cardboard “Lula” masks.



Mr. da Silva before surrendering to the police to begin serving a 12-year prison term in April.
Credit Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times
. . .

In the southern city of Curitiba, where he is imprisoned, Mr. da Silva has hosted a stream of high-profile visitors in his 161-square-foot cell on Thursdays, when friends and family are allowed to enter.

Support has poured in from foreign leftist leaders. Among them are former Presidents Michelle Bachelet of Chile and François Hollande of France as well as the Bolivian leader Evo Morales and 29 United States lawmakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders, who concluded in a letter, “The facts of President Lula’s case give us reason to believe that the main objective of his jailing is to prevent him from running in upcoming elections.”

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“Politics are ugly, but Lula is the only politician who has ever done anything for poor people,” said Josué Eduardo, a gardener from Recife, in Mr. da Silva’s home state of Pernambuco. “Thanks to Lula, my mom’s village got electricity for the first time and my daughter got a house. If he tells me to vote for someone, I will.”

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A man placed masks of Mr. da Silva on seats before the Workers’ Party national convention on Saturday.
Credit Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

. . .

Mr. Haddad has been making the rounds presenting the “five axes” of Mr. da Silva’s government plan. These include general guidelines to revive the economy with public investment, an expansion of a program that deployed doctors in underserved areas and the promise to impose taxes on banks that refuse to lower interest rates on credit, which are some of the highest in the world.

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“When you prevent the most popular leader in the country from running for election, the risk for Brazilian democracy is very high,” Ms. Hoffmann said.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/world/americas/lula-brazil-election-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva.html