Latin America’s Left Needs Better Heroes
Rooting for Brazil’s jailed ex-president to run again makes a mockery of its judicial progress.
Look behind the mask.
Photographer: Cris Faga/NurPhoto via Getty Images
For a man behind bars, former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been on a tear. In recent weeks, his followers have taken to the streets in his name. Foreign celebrities and world leaders including a Nobel Peace Prize laureate have sung his praises. Even Pope Francis reportedly sent him blessings. No other candidate comes close in the polls for the October 7 presidential elections.
That’s not half bad for the political leader whom two Brazilian courts found guilty of graft and money laundering, and sent away for 12 years. Never mind that according to an acclaimed anti-corruption law, such ignominy makes him ineligible to run for office for the next eight years. Nor that his willful big spending, and his handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff, set up Brazil for its worst recession and a decade of payola and graft scandals.