The swearing in of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, more commonly known as Lula, as Brazilian president, which took place in the afternoon of 1 January in the capital Brasília, was also a demonstration of what is sometimes called Latin America’s “pink tide”, the group of left-wing leaders recently elected in South America.
Prominent among the leaders attending the ceremony were Chile’s Gabriel Boric and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president and a former guerrilla.
Petro was able to start 2023 by announcing a six-month truce between his government and the still active left-wing guerrillas and a right-wing paramilitary force.
Petro can present these as the first-fruits of his signature policy of “total peace”. Also present were the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly and the Cuban vice-president, Salvador Valdés.
Venezuela and Cuba had been banned by previous president Jair Bolsonaro from sending representatives to his inauguration.
For Lula himself to be sworn in for a third term as Brazilian president is a particular vindication, since he spent almost two years in prison after being convicted of corruption. The convictions were eventually annulled by the Supreme Court in 2021.
But Lula will be a less powerful figure than in his previous terms of office. His victory was narrow, a mere 50.9 per cent of the votes, and he had to make deals with unsuccessful candidates in order to win their support in the second round of the elections.
A danger for him is that he will not be able to meet the expectations of his core supporters. Nonetheless thousands of enthusiastic Lula supporters flooded into Brasília by bus and plane, and a music festival was organised to accompany the swearing in.
Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, left Brazil for Florida on 30 December, apparently to avoid having to perform the traditional ritual of passing on the presidential sash to his successor.
After the ceremony the new president signed a number of decrees: he revoked Bolsonaro’s relaxation on the use of weapons and re-established the Amazon Fund, which channels foreign aid to protect the rainforest. There was also a decree banning goldmining in the region.
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