Lula's Possible Return Signals Hope For Brazil

Sergio Souza

It was only two years ago that it seemed lefist politics in South America were being successfully brought down by the far-right corporate-backed powers of the region. 

Right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro had risen to power in Brazil after false criminal charges against former President Lula da Silva, President Evo Morales of Bolivia was ousted in a U.S. backed military coup, and violent neoliberal presidencies in Colombia, Chile, Honduras, and Ecuador were dealing great harm to their citizens. 

But now, there is hope on the horizon for millions of people across South America. Lula da Silva was annulled of all convictions on March 8th, creating the possibility for Lula to challenge Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazil Presidential elections. Before Lula was charged in 2018, dropping him out of that year’s presidential race, he was leading nationwide election polls. 

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, the Movement For Socialism (MAS) party won a sweeping election victory in 2020, repudiating the military coup that ousted former president Evo Morales in 2019. Morales had reduced extreme poverty by 60 percent between when he took office in 2006 and when he was ousted in 2019. In Ecuador, it looks as if Andés Arauz will return the lefist tradition of former President Rafael Correa to power, which also has a record of great poverty reduction. 

There are even more examples of the left’s resurgence in South America, including in Chile and Argentina. But Lula da Silva’s likely return to Brazilian politics is crucial to emphasize. The right-wing presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and the damages he has caused cannot be talked about enough. Brazil has experienced one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world, and Indigenous leaders and human rights groups are attempting to sue Bolsonaro through the International Criminal Court (ICC) because of his destruction of the Amazon rainforest. 

Lula’s potential return would mean a change from Bolsonaro’s disastrous Amazon rainforest policy of annihilation. That change in policy is also critical for the future of the planet itself, as the Amazon rainforest is possibly on a tipping point between acting as a proponent of the climate crisis or continuing as the lungs of the world. Lula’s return would also mean a much-improved COVID-19 response, a bolstered social safety net, and greater unity amongst South American nations.

With the climate crisis approaching an undeniable point of no return in terms of locked-in catastrophic damage and fascist actors springing up around the globe, there has been no greater need for a resurgent left politics around the world. 

Lula once said, “Those in power can kill one, two, or three roses, but they will never be able to stop the coming of spring.” 

Let’s all keep working to assure spring arrives soon.