Lula is by far the preferred candidate of most Brazilians
I write in response to the op-ed by Brazil’s former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, under whom 16 years ago I was serving as ambassador to the UK (“ Lula’s vision of Brazil is a damaging fiction”, August 22).
After Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in October 2002, having beaten his rival, who belonged to the same party as Mr Cardoso, by a very comfortable margin, eight years of sustained prosperity coupled with greater social justice ensued. This was reflected in levels of popularity never attained by any other Brazilian president. Lula’s policies inspired respect and admiration throughout the world.
Unlike some neocons of the George W Bush era, who in 2002 thought a Lula victory would put Brazil in the “axis of evil”, Mr Cardoso is a highly intelligent and cultivated person, a renowned sociologist, who was responsible for the so-called dependency theory, at one point very popular in academic circles. He was one of the main leaders of the political movement that resulted in the end of the military dictatorship.
As someone who dreamt of a democratic Brazil, I had never imagined that the day would come in which a true representative of the working class would become president. It is with disappointment that I see the bitterness with which the former president describes Lula’s fight to prove his innocence.
Lula is by far the preferred candidate of most Brazilians. A great number of jurists, statesmen and intellectuals around the world have stressed that Lula’s freedom and his right to run for the presidency are essential for the consolidation of democracy in Brazil.
On August 17, the UN Human Rights Committee requested Brazil take “all the necessary measures” to ensure Lula’s political rights while appeals are still pending. Our judicial authorities now face the “challenge” to make good their repeated proclamations of respect for international norms concerning human rights.