SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80, said Sunday he was \u201cin great shape\u201d as he launched his candidacy for October elections, with pressure from US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration looming over the campaign.<\/p>\n
A titan of the Latin American left, Lula is seeking a fourth and final term in office in a campaign casting him as a safe pair of hands in turbulent times and a bulwark against the global rise of the far right.<\/p>\n
While no one mentioned Trump by name at the Workers\u2019 Party (PT) convention in Sao Paulo, Lula and fellow leftist heavyweights leaned heavily on the theme of protecting Brazil\u2019s sovereignty from outside threats, amid trade and diplomatic spats with Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be prepared so that no one invades this country,\u201d Lula said, urging greater investment in defense.<\/p>\n
The former metalworker and union leader made a dramatic comeback when he returned to power three years ago after a stint in jail on corruption convictions that were later annulled, having previously governed from 2003-2010.<\/p>\n
He is loved and despised in near-equal measure in Brazil and won his last election by a razor-thin margin.<\/p>\n
Supporters point to social programs that have lifted millions out of poverty while critics \u2014 noting that the PT has been in power for around 17 of the past 24 years \u2014 highlight enduring problems such as crime and corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here today because Lula\u2019s policies changed my life and my family\u2019s. Thanks to him, we own our own home today,\u201d Cristiane Rosa Julho, a 51-year-old social worker, told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80, said Sunday he was \u201cin great shape\u201d as he launched his candidacy for October elections, with pressure from US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration looming over the campaign. A titan of the Latin American left, Lula is seeking a fourth and final term in office in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":101177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101178,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164\/revisions\/101178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}