Brazil's Last Political Legend Goes to Trial

Political legends are hard to come by these days in Brazil, where both houses of parliament, a batch of current and former governors, and much of the sitting presidential cabinet have been tainted by charges of graft and payola. But then Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the two-time president who put Brazil's name in lights and left office in 2010 practically beatified, isn't just any politician. So when Lula, as he is known to all, takes the stand in federal court this afternoon, in one of five corruption trials he now faces, listen for the sound of clay feet cracking.

To his devotees and boosters in the left-wing Workers Party, of course, the case is a travesty of justice and a political call to arms. Police in the southern city of Curitiba, where "companheiro" -- comrade -- Lula is on trial, are bracing for the worst, including tumultuous street protests. Given the country's still toxic political mood following the impeachment last year of Lula's hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, the fear isn't far-fetched. Judge Sergio Moro, who presides over the so-called Carwash investigation of political corruption, even took to social media to call for civic restraint. He'll have his hands full just managing the war of attrition in court, where Lula's scrum of lawyers has called 87 defense witnesses.