Lula Announces Historic Bid for Fourth Term, Faces Jailed Bolsonaro's Son

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has officially launched his campaign for a fourth term, vowing never to let the "shameless right-wing" return to power while he is alive. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old leader recalled the chaos and violence of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro's 2018-2022 term.

Lula noted that hundreds of thousands of people died during the Covid-19 pandemic, which Bolsonaro allegedly mishandled due to anti-science policies. Loosening gun laws allowed criminal groups to expand their arsenals. "They handed out more than a million guns," Lula said, while promising to dedicate a fourth term to improving education, healthcare, and developing Brazil's rare earth mines, the world's second-largest reserves after China's.

He also pledged to strengthen security by targeting wealthy organized crime bosses who live in luxury apartments. "Killing a criminal in the favela is easy. But the leader is living in a penthouse... and we need to stop that," Lula said, urging far-right opponents to "have a little shame."

Lula spoke at the Vila Euclides stadium, where his remarkable rise began in 1979 as a 33-year-old union leader. He led two historic strikes that helped end the military dictatorship. In 2002, after three failed attempts, Lula won decisively to become the first president from the working class.

During his first two terms (2002-2010), Lula is credited with fighting hunger, expanding social welfare programs and access to higher education, and raising Brazil's international standing, though his administration faced corruption scandals. His successor Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president, led the country into a severe economic recession before her controversial impeachment in 2016.

In 2018, Lula was jailed on corruption charges, spending 580 days in prison before the Supreme Court annulled his conviction. His absence paved the way for Bolsonaro's election, ushering in four years of environmental destruction and international isolation. In 2022, Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro, pledging to rescue the country from "one of the worst periods in Brazil's history."

Former President Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2025 for plotting a coup after his election loss. His son, 45-year-old Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, has launched his own campaign with an event at Copacabana beach in Rio, a site of major pro-Bolsonaro protests. Wearing Brazil's yellow jersey with a bulletproof vest underneath, Flávio told thousands of supporters: "I will be the next president of Brazil because I will fight against this system."

Polls show Lula leading Flávio Bolsonaro by 43% to 40% in a runoff. The first round is scheduled for October 4 and the second on October 25 if no candidate secures 50% of the vote.

André Pagliarini, author of the book on Lula titled "A People's President and the Fight for Brazil's Future," said the contest would be "the most important election in the world this year." He believes a Flávio Bolsonaro victory would be a major boost for the pro-Trump "reactionary bloc" that has won across Latin America, from Argentina and Chile to Colombia.

The Trump administration has repeatedly asserted regional leadership, conducting military campaigns against "drug terrorism" in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and threatening to "retake" the Panama Canal. Recently, the U.S. designated Brazil's two largest crime groups, Red Command and PCC, as terrorist organizations, raising concerns about U.S. military intervention in Brazilian territory or electoral interference.

Meanwhile, at Lula's campaign launch, some activists handed out stickers reading "Fuck Trump." In Rio, Flávio Bolsonaro praised Trump's decision to target Brazilian criminal gangs, claiming he is the only politician who can "sit down with the U.S."