Electing Lula da Silva is “reintroducing criminals to crime” in Brazil, says Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro affirmed that a possible victory of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in next October’s presidential elections in Brazil would mean “returning criminals to the scene of crime.”

Even today, many critical observers cannot believe how the former left-wing president Lula da Silva, who was hounded out of office in disgrace and sent to prison for his thieving and corrupt government, is now back as a shining hero in the arena of the 2022 presidential election in Latin America’s most important country.

The left has virtually the entire Brazilian media industry in its pocket and, more importantly, it pulls the strings in the Supreme Court, which has established itself as a parallel government in Brazil in an unprecedented power grab.

That’s the only way to explain the fact that the convicted “prison Lula” can once again smile for the cameras as a freshly washed innocent and continue to fool Brazilians into thinking he’s actually a good guy, say critics who fear for the future of this pivotal country in the Americas.

Bolsonaro, in a speech in a public ceremony, referred to the negotiations of Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party (PT) so that sectors of the center support Lula’s aspirations, which would turn the former governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, into the possible candidate for vice-president in the key headed by the socialist leader.

“They want to bring the criminal back to the scene of the crime, together with Geraldo Alckmin. Is that what we want for our Brazil?” said the head of state in an event at the Planalto Presidential Palace where he announced credit lines for aquaculture.

Like Lula da Silva, Alckmin, who ran on the center-right, has been the target of corruption allegations.

‘Prison-Lula’, Brazil’s main opposition leader and one of the shadiest figures in recent Brazilian history, was convicted in two corruption trials and spent 580 days in prison, preventing him from running in the 2018 presidential election.

However, the Supreme Court miraculously overturned the sentences last year due to a so-called ‘conflict of jurisdiction’ and ordered the retrial by a new judge in Brasília.

Spurred by daily horror stories in the hostile Brazilian press about Bolsonaro and his government, Lula da Silva leads by a wide margin in polls of voting intentions for the October elections.

The president recalled a speech during the 2018 election campaign. The same Alckmin claimed that Lula’s PT party wanted to “return to the place of crime,” alluding to the corruption scandals that rocked the governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff.

The head of state stressed that the assets recovered from Petrobras, which represent part of the funds diverted from the oil company during the PT governments, are proof of the endless corruption cases in the government of ‘Prison-Lula’.

“Of the R$100 billion (about US$17.86 billion) that Petrobras paid out of its debt, part came from the agreements by which those responsible for the irregularities returned part of what was diverted,” he said.

In December, Petrobras reported that it has so far recovered R$6.17 billion (about US$1.102 billion) of the total amount that was diverted from Brazil’s largest company by the corrupt network that adulterated its tenders for nearly a decade.

Said resources returned to the coffers of the state-owned oil company thanks to collaboration agreements, repatriations, and waivers signed by the companies that diverted them so that the Prosecutor’s Office would close investigations against them in exchange for the admission of guilt and compensation to the company.

Bolsonaro also said that Lula is already negotiating the distribution of ministries and state ministries among the leaders of centrist parties that support his presidential candidacy.

“I don’t have proof, but I’m going to say it. How is this citizen getting support despite his life with filthy antecedents? By handing out ministries. He has already offered one party the presidency of the Caixa (the public bank Caixa Economica Federal),” he said.

He added that, on the contrary, the appointment of his ministers was not the result of negotiation with political parties but of technical recommendations.

“Most of you who work with me could be very well in other areas, but you are giving your quota of sacrifice to help Brazil to overcome the crisis and to avoid the return of that hand of bandits and scoundrels that occupied this space to assault the country for a project of power, whose final act will be to attack our freedom”, he affirmed.

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