Lula Returns for Third Term as Brazil President

File Photo: Brazil's former president and presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves during an annual meeting of the Brazilian scientific community at the University of Brasilia, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 28, 2022. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
File Photo: Brazil's former president and presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves during an annual meeting of the Brazilian scientific community at the University of Brasilia, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 28, 2022. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
TT
20

Lula Returns for Third Term as Brazil President

File Photo: Brazil's former president and presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves during an annual meeting of the Brazilian scientific community at the University of Brasilia, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 28, 2022. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
File Photo: Brazil's former president and presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves during an annual meeting of the Brazilian scientific community at the University of Brasilia, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 28, 2022. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to be inaugurated Sunday for a third term as Brazilian president, in a ceremony snubbed by outgoing leader Jair Bolsonaro, underlining the deep divisions the veteran leftist inherits.

The swearing-in will cap a remarkable political comeback for 77-year-old Lula, who returns to the presidential palace in Brasilia less than five years after being jailed on controversial, since-quashed corruption charges, AFP said.

In a sign of the scars that remain from Lula's brutal election showdown with far-right ex-army captain Bolsonaro in October, security will be exceptionally tight at the pomp-filled ceremony in the capital.

Some 8,000 police -- including more than 1,000 federal officers, a record deployment for a presidential inauguration in Brazil -- will provide security,

The stepped up measures come after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested last week for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives near the Brasilia airport, a plot he said aimed to "sow chaos" in the South American country.

Bolsonaro himself left Brazil for the US state of Florida Friday -- reportedly to avoid having to hand the presidential sash to his bitter enemy, as tradition dictates.

The snub has hardly dampened the party spirit for Lula and the 300,000 people expected at the ceremony and a massive concert that will feature acts ranging from samba legend Martinho da Vila to drag queen Pabllo Vittar.

Thousands of Lula supporters have been flooding the capital, traveling by plane, car and even bicycle to camp out near the Esplanade of Ministries.

Foreign dignitaries including 17 heads of state will also be in attendance as Lula, who previously led the country through a watershed boom from 2003 to 2010, takes the oath of office for a new four-year term at 3:00 pm (1800 GMT).

They include the presidents of a raft of Latin American countries, Germany, Portugal and the king of Spain.

After being sworn in before Congress, Lula will travel by car -- traditionally a black convertible Rolls Royce, though officials said that could be changed for security reasons -- to the ultra-modern capital's presidential palace, the Planalto.

There he will walk up a ramp to the entrance and receive the gold- and diamond-embroidered presidential sash.

Organizers of the ceremony -- led by first lady-to-be Rosangela "Janja" da Silva -- have maintained a mystery around who will give Lula the sash in Bolsonaro's absence.

It will be the first time since the end of Brazil's 1965-1985 military dictatorship that an incoming president does not receive the yellow-and-green sash from his predecessor.

- Pressing to-do list -
Lula faces numerous urgent challenges for Latin America's biggest economy, which looks little like the commodities-fueled dynamo he presided over in the 2000s.

They include rebooting economic growth, curbing rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest and delivering on his ambitious poverty- and inequality-fighting agenda.

An estimated 30 million of Brazil's 215 million people are living in hunger, and the economy is still struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin described the incoming administration's task as "herculean."

Lula will face a Congress dominated by Bolsonaro's conservative allies.

He is also dogged by far-right hardliners who have been rallying outside army bases calling for a military intervention to keep him from power ever since he narrowly won the October 30 runoff election, 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.

"He will have to act assertively in his first 100 days to show where Lula Part Three is headed," said political scientist Leandro Consentino of the Insper institute in Sao Paulo.

"His election win was very tight, and he'll face a divided country and a combative opposition. He'll have to lead a national unity government and restore the peace."

Markets are meanwhile watching nervously how Lula will fund his promised social spending given Brazil's overstretched government finances.

"Our priority will be taking care of the poorest, the neediest, of working people," Lula said recently.



Nobel Laureate Mohammadi Says Iran Issuing Death Threats

Narges Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly over the past 25 years - AFP
Narges Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly over the past 25 years - AFP
TT
20

Nobel Laureate Mohammadi Says Iran Issuing Death Threats

Narges Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly over the past 25 years - AFP
Narges Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly over the past 25 years - AFP

Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for women's and human rights in Iran, has received death threats from Tehran, the Nobel Committee said Friday.

Mohammadi, who has spent much of the past decade behind bars, was released from Tehran's Evin prison in December for a limited period on medical leave, with her legal team repeatedly warning that she could be re-arrested at any time, AFP reported.

Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said in a statement he had received an "urgent phone call" from Mohammadi, 53, who said her life was now in danger.

"The clear message, in her own words, is that 'I have been directly and indirectly threatened with 'physical elimination' by agents of the regime'," he said.

"The threats conveyed to Ms. Mohammadi make it clear that her security is at stake, unless she commits to end all public engagement within Iran, as well as any international advocacy or media appearances in support of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression," the statement added.

The Committee said it was "deeply concerned" about the threats against Mohammadi and "all Iranian citizens with a critical voice, and call upon the authorities to safeguard not only their lives, but also their freedom of expression."

Mohammadi has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her vocal campaigning against Iran's widespread use of capital punishment and its mandatory dress code for women.

She won the Nobel primarily for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. Her children collected the award on her behalf as she was in prison at the time.