Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office Sunday for a third term as Brazil’s president, vowing to fight for the poor and the environment and “rebuild the country” after far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro’s divisive administration.
BRASILIA, Brazil –
Giving a blistering overview of the past four years under Bolsonaro — who snubbed the ceremony, in a break with tradition — Lula said his government would work to undo a legacy of economic decline, funding cuts in health, education and science, and the “stupidity” of plundering the nation’s resources for private gain.
Wearing a blue suit and tie, the charismatic but controversial Lula arrived for the ceremony in a black convertible Rolls-Royce, accompanied by First Lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. Security was exceptionally tight for the ceremony, with some 8,000 police deployed, after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested last week for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives near the capital’s airport, a plot he said aimed to “sow chaos” in the South American country.
“I’m excited beyond measure,” retired teacher Zenia Maria Soares Pinto, 71, told AFP after traveling 30 hours by bus from the southern state of Santa Catarina. They included the presidents of a raft of Latin American countries, Germany, Portugal and the king of Spain.
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