Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [ lu'iz i'nasju ' lulɐ as ' siwvɐ ] ( born October 27, 1945 in Caetes, Brazil) is a Brazilian politician. He was from 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2011 President of Brazil, and is a founding member of the Brazilian Workers' Party Partido dos Trabalhadores.

Originally born as Luiz Inacio da Silva, he took his nickname " Lula" ( Lula is a nickname for " Luis" ) later officially in the name. As " Lula" he is well known in the Brazilian population.

Family, education

Lula da Silva was there, the seventh of eight children of Aristides Inácio da Silva and Eurídice Ferreira de Mello. His father moved in search of work to São Paulo, 1952 followed Lula with his siblings and his mother, but his father had a new wife found and wanted the old family have no more contact. He walked lack of school fees only a few years to school. Already at the age of 12 he had to go through various works, including in a laundry, as a shoeshine boy and as a messenger boy, contribute to the livelihood of the family.

Later he worked in a metal factory and was able to complete at the Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial training as a metal worker. From 1966 he worked in a large company in the metal industry in São Bernardo do Campo in the Greater São Paulo and was trained at a private school of José Efromovich, then part of the current President of Avianca Brazil. In 1979, he became the leader of a workers' strike, on 18 April 1980 he was arrested by the police of the military dictatorship, but was released again in May, after the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had made this a condition for a visit.

Lula is married since 1974 with Marisa Letícia, with whom he had five children. His first wife died of an infection. She could not be treated because Lula could not raise the necessary money for the treatment.

End of October 2011 it was announced that Lula has cancer. It is a small and limited tumor of the larynx. Lula will undergo chemotherapy and then radiotherapy.

Activity

About his brother Lula da Silva came in contact with the trade union movement. Back in 1969, elected him the union of metal workers as a proxy to the Board of the Regional Group in São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. In the elections in 1972, he was elected as Secretary-General again to the Board. With 92 percent of votes elected him union members in 1975 as its chairman. Lula da Silva took about 100,000 workers.

During the 1970s, the future president of the country participated in the organization of various trade union activities and great strike. He was also arrested and sat for a month in prison. Unhappy with the results of the strikes, Lula da Silva founded together with other trade unionists, intellectuals and representatives of different social groups on 10 February 1980, the Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT ( " party of the working "). The PT was represented in 1982 in many parts of the country and had about 400,000 members.

In 1986, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva elected with a record as a representative of the state of São Paulo in Brazil's Congress. The PT was actively involved in the development of the new Brazilian Constitution and could ensure that important rights of the workers therein. On other issues, such as the redesign of land tenure, however, they could not prevail.

As early as 1989 fought Lula da Silva, candidate of the PT for the presidency. Although he was very popular among sections of the population, he was not elected. Industry and finance feared that a socialist could harm the economic interests.

In all subsequent elections for the President, he took up again. Only in the election campaign for the 2002 elections, he deliberately avoided his workers image and appeared in a suit and tie. He also no longer stressed his opinion that Brazil should not repay its foreign debt. Instead, he sat on a program against hunger and poverty ( Fome Zero ), and for better education.

The industry, he managed to build up a relationship of trust carefully. So it surprised, for example, as just before the elections announced by a representative of an automobile manufacturer that they would produce a new model in Brazil and for that new jobs would be created. These signals led among other things to a confidence gain in the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), which eventually choosing Lula da Silva welcomed.

Presidency

In the second ballot on October 27, 2002 Lula da Silva won against José Serra, the candidate of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, PSDB ( Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira ). He replaced Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was President of Brazil since 1995, starting in office.

To influence Lula da Silva also includes the controversial Industrial Blairo Maggi, Governor of Mato Grosso who is also. Greenpeace called Maggi as one of the main responsible for the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest.

In June 2006, Lula da Silva was because the candidacy for a second term known. Against him came to the Social Democrat Geraldo Alckmin. In the first round of the presidential election on 1 October 2006, Lula narrowly missed the absolute majority with 48.6 percent of the vote. So he had to in a second ballot his challenger, Geraldo Alckmin, ask. Heloísa Helena ended up with 6.8 percent of votes in third place. The most votes won Lula in the northeast of Brazil, where the introduced during his term social programs begin to impact. In his homeland, however, Lula had to suffer heavy losses.

On October 29, 2006 Lula was re-elected. With 61 percent he was clearly ahead of his challenger Geraldo Alckmin (39 percent). Above all, it was the poorer sections of the population of the North and Northeast of Brazil, Lula had remained loyal. The number of people living below the poverty line should be decreased since 2002 from 40 percent to 20 percent.

After two consecutive terms allowed Lula da Silva in the 2010 presidential election, not reapply. To his successor was his proposed candidate of the PT, Dilma Rousseff, was elected. To her he gave on January 1, 2011, the president.

In April 2013, the General Prosecutor of Brazil took in connection with the so-called mensalão scandal investigation also against Lula. Between 2003 and 2005, during Lula's first term, his Labour Party to have da Silva bought with cash payments to members of the Brazilian Congress to approve Lula policy. End of 2012, 25 politicians, lawyers and businessmen were found guilty of being involved in the scandal. Lula had always maintained that he knew nothing of the payments. The sentenced to 40 years in prison businessman Marcos Valerio accused him of being involved in the scandal itself.

Awards

• Félix Houphouët - Boigny Peace Prize, 2008
• Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Gold ( South Africa ) 2011
• World Food Prize, 2011
• Four Freedoms Award, 2012

Film

• In the documentary South of the Border by Oliver Stone from 2009 Lula da Silva is interviewed along with other provincial government in Latin America.
• The feature film Lula, o Filho do Brasil (2009) followed Lula's life up to the death of his mother.