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BRAZIL-POLITICS-LULA-CORRUPTION
From palace to prison: Brazil’s ex-president Lula in dates
SAO PAULO, Sept 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Brazil’s ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva, better known as Lula, was Friday dealt a blow by an electoral court
that barred him from running in October’s presidential election.
The 72-year-old has been leading polls in Latin America’s largest economy
despite being his incarceration for corruption.
Here is a list of key dates in the life of one of the world’s most popular
politicians.
– October 27, 1945: Lula is born to a poor farming family in Brazil’s
northeast. His family moves when he is seven to the state of Sao Paulo to
escape hunger.
– 1975: He becomes president of the metal workers’ union, having worked in
that sector since the age of 14.
– 1978-80: At the height of the military dictatorship, Lula leads major
strikes in the industrial suburbs and is jailed for a month for his role.
– 1980: Lula co-founds the leftist Workers’ Party (PT) and goes on to take
part in the creation, in 1983, of the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), which
becomes Brazil’s largest trade union federation.
– 1986: He is elected to Congress.
– First leftist president –
– 2003: Lula becomes Brazil’s first leftist president after winning
election in the previous year. He is re-elected in 2006 for a term ending in
2010.
– 2016: The Supreme Court blocks his appointment as chief of staff to
President Dilma Rousseff, his handpicked successor. She is then impeached in
August after allegations of financial wrongdoing.
– July 2017: Lula is found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian
construction company in return for contracts with state oil giant Petrobras.
He is sentenced to nine and a half years behind bars.
– January 2018: He loses an appeal and his sentence is increased to 12
years and one month.
– April 5, 2018: After losing an appeal to delay the start of his sentence,
Lula is ordered to turn himself in within 24 hours. He defies the order but
later agrees to comply.
– April 7, 2018: Shortly before midnight, Lula becomes an inmate at the
federal police headquarters in Curitiba.
– August 15, 2018: Lula’s Workers’ Party officially registers his
presidential candidacy.
– August 31, 2018: A majority of Brazil’s electoral court bars Lula from
running in October’s election.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1020 hrs