“Lula represents hope”: the favorite of the Brazilian presidential election sends his message in the favelas of Rio | Brazil

Thousands of favela residents and activists took to the streets of Rio to show their support for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvathe left-wing favorite to become Brazil’s next president.

Speaking to a sea of ​​supporters in one of Rio’s biggest favelas, the Complexo do Alemão, Lula vowed to give his far-right rival Jair Bolsonaro “a beating” when the largest democracy in South America organizes the second round of its presidential election at the end of October.

“We are going to win these elections,” proclaimed the 76-year-old ex-president who narrowly missed out on an outright victory over Bolsonaro in the first round 10 days ago.

Lula, who rose from rural poverty to become Brazil’s first working-class president in 2002, said he was determined to return to power “to prove to the elites who have ruled since 1500 that once again a steelworker will fix what country”.

“The only reason I’m running for president again is my belief that we can change things,” Lula told activists at an assembly at the headquarters of See Communities, the favela press group that organized his rare visit. “I promise you this country will change – and it will change for the better.”

Residents of more than 30 favelas had flocked to the Complexo do Alemão on Wednesday morning to defend a politician who he hopes can end Bolsonaro’s tumultuous four-year rule, during which Covid killed nearly 700,000 people and millions have been pushed into poverty.

“Lula setting foot in the favela is an act of resistance. It shows that we are not alone – that there is hope,” said Douglas Viana, a 30-year-old activist from another sprawling working-class community, Complexo da Maré. “This is a historic moment for the country. We have never seen anything on this scale,” Viana added.

Rene Silva, the founder of Voz das Comunidades, expressed his optimism about the imminent social change under Lula, who used his two presidential terms to help millions of people escape poverty and enter higher education thanks to the product of a regional commodity boom.

“Lula represents hope – hope for less hunger and less inequality. We have taken so many steps backwards during Bolsonaro’s four years in power – and it will take a long time to rebuild all of that,” said Silva, 27.

Anielle Franco, an activist whose political sister Marielle Franco was murdered in 2018, said she hoped a victory for Lula could help secure justice for her murdered brother.

“Lula symbolizes the return of the humble, the poor, the black and the northeast of the favela to the presidency – everything that we don’t have under this government,” Franco said.

Fighting a “government of hate”

Lula won the first round of elections in the Alemão region, a vast expanse of red-brick housing north of Rio with tens of thousands of inhabitants, as well as in other large favelas such as Rocinha and Maré.

But the left lost in Rio state as a whole, with Bolsonaro winning 51% of the vote to Lula’s 40.7%, and Lula stepped up his campaign here ahead of the Oct. 30 showdown with the far-right incumbent.

Carlos Lupi, a Labor party leader who helps lead Lula’s run-off campaign, said Wednesday’s event was designed to raise awareness in favelas of the urgent need for political change.

“This is the government of hate, of anger – and we must defeat it,” Lupi said as crowds swept down one of Alemão’s main thoroughfares with banners denouncing the ravaging hunger crisis. the poor of Brazil. “We need to wake up this community to the harm this government is causing them.”

Not everyone was convinced, with many residents of evangelical favelas remaining loyal to Bolsonaro, whose allies have falsely accused Lula of plotting to shut down churches.

Valmir da Silva, a 51-year-old driver, came to the Alemão rally with a towel bearing the image of Bolsonaro and his nationalist slogan: “Brazil above all, God above all”.

“He’s done more in two years than Lula in eight,” Silva said of the right-wing radical. “Lula is not interested in the poor. He thinks only of staying in power.

Silva insisted that the crowd of Lula supporters around him did not represent the working-class neighborhood where he was born and raised. “The favela is divided,” he says.

But as young favela leaders spoke to Lula, they were united in their plea for better healthcare and education – and an end to government neglect and police brutality that plagues hundreds each year. dead, mostly black. “We are tired of dying,” local activist Alan Brum told Lula.

Buba Aguiar, an activist from a community called Acari, told the former president that the only way to defeat Bolsonaro and his far-right movement was to join the voices of the favela, where around 20% of the population live. citizens of Rio.

“There is no way to stop authoritarianism or to stop Bolsonarism, without the leaders who are here today,” Aguiar said. “Only with our help can we get Brazil back on track.”

Additional reporting by Alan Lima