Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
President- Elect of Brazil
Live Webcast Dec. 10, 2002, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT

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Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited

In October, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva -- popularly known as "Lula" -- won the presidential runoff in Brazil. The president-elect's long road to power took him from the poverty of Sao Paolo, to the trade union movement of the '60s and '70s, through four runs for the presidency. He will take office in January as president of a country that has the largest economy in Latin America.

Born in 1945, Lula started out as a metal-worker at the age of 14, and studied the craft at night school. In 1966 he joined the union for his trade as a metalworker, and began to participate in trade union affairs. His union activities increased over the following years, and in 1972 he was elected secretary of the Union of Metalworkers of Sao Bernardo de Campo and Sao Caetano. Lula was elected president of the union twice over the next six years.

In 1980, Lula helped form the Brazilian political party known as the Worker's Party (PT). Over the next 10 years the party emerged as a power in Brazilian national politics, and Lula's political fortunes rose as well. In 1984 the PT began to call for direct elections and the right to vote for president of Brazil. That year, Lula ran for federal deputy in the National Constituent Assembly, and he received more votes than any other candidate in the country.

Following years of rule by a military regime, Brazil began again to popularly elect its president in 1989. That year, the Worker's Party and Lula finished in second place. He finished second in presidential elections two more times in 1994 and 1998. Lula began his fourth presidential campaign in 2001. He was elected president with a record 52.7 million votes in a presidential runoff in October.

Related Links:

Brazilian Workers Party

Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

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