World
‘Our phoenix’: The astonishing comeback of Brazil’s Lula
4 years in the past, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s status and political future have been in tatters. After an unlikely rise from poverty to union chief to Brazil’s presidency, the person universally often called Lula had landed in jail.
On Sunday – in one more twist – Brazil’s voters selected him by the narrowest of margins to as soon as once more lead the world’s fourth-largest democracy. He can even be placing his legacy on the road.
“They tried to bury me alive, and I’m right here,” Lula mentioned in a speech on Sunday night time after outcomes confirmed his third presidential win. “I’m right here to manipulate in a really troublesome state of affairs. However I place confidence in God that, with our folks’s assist, we’ll discover a approach out for this nation.”
Lula’s life has unfolded in such a singular, extraordinary approach that it strains credulity.
His household moved from poor northeastern Brazil to Sao Paulo state in pursuit of a greater life, following his father, who had travelled south years earlier than. Upon arriving, nonetheless, they discovered he had settled down with one other lady. Lula’s mom was left alone to boost eight kids, of whom little Lula was the youngest.
Along with his household pressed for cash, he turned a metalworker at age 14 within the gritty outskirts of Sao Paulo. It was a bodily job that price him his left pinky finger. He turned a union chief in an period when Brazil’s manufacturing workforce was nonetheless huge and translated into political energy.
He made his first presidential run in 1989, which he misplaced — together with two subsequent races.
Lastly, in 2002, he claimed victory and have become the primary employee to imagine the nation’s high job. He was re-elected 4 years later, defeating his rival Geraldo Alckmin, who this 12 months turned his working mate.
Instances have been good throughout Lula’s presidency. Commodities exports to China have been surging, filling authorities coffers, and an enormous welfare programme lifted tens of thousands and thousands of Brazilians into the center class. Lula left workplace with an approval score above 80 %. Then-US President Barack Obama known as him “the preferred politician on Earth”.
His hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, was elected in 2014.
In Rousseff’s second time period, nonetheless, a sprawling corruption investigation ensnared high politicians and businessmen alike. It plunged her administration – together with Lula and the remainder of the Staff’ Social gathering he based – into shame.
Revelations of systemic kickbacks in change for presidency contracts have been adopted by a deep, two-year recession, which many blamed on Rousseff’s financial insurance policies and turbocharged resentment of the Staff’ Social gathering. She was impeached in 2016 for breaking fiscal accountability legal guidelines concerning administration of the federal funds.
Then Lula was sentenced for corruption and cash laundering and confined to a 15sq-m (160sq-ft) room on the fourth ground of a Federal Police constructing within the southern metropolis of Curitiba. That sidelined him from the 2018 presidential race and cleared the way in which for Jair Bolsonaro, then a fringe lawmaker, to cruise to victory. Lula’s political legacy was in tatters.
His private life, too, was blown to items. His spouse handed away, which on the time he blamed on the pressure attributable to the investigation.
Ultimately, he began exchanging love letters with a lady named Rosângela da Silva, nicknamed Janja. Their relationship blossomed because of Lula’s then-lawyer, Luis Carlos Rocha, who visited him each weekday.
Rocha acted as their courier, hiding Janja’s letters inside his jacket pocket the place guards wouldn’t test. He informed The Related Press he noticed Lula’s face gentle up with every envelope he delivered.
“God prepared, at some point we’ll publish [the letters],” Lula mentioned at a rally in September. “However just for folks aged over 18.”
The Supreme Courtroom additionally began assessing the legality of Lula’s convictions, which it will definitely annulled on the grounds that the presiding federal decide had been biased and colluded with prosecutors.
After 580 days of imprisonment, Lula was a free man – free to marry his girlfriend and free to run for the presidency. That didn’t cease incumbent Bolsonaro, who was in search of a second time period, from reminding voters of Lula’s convictions at each flip, warning that electing him can be like letting a thief return to the scene of the crime.
It revitalised semi-dormant sentiment in opposition to the Staff’ Social gathering. A lot of Brazil’s voters nonetheless has solely disdain for Lula, however the identical could be mentioned for Bolsonaro. Finally, the presidential race got here right down to the wire. Lula was elected for the third time with 50.9 % of the vote. It was the tightest election since Brazil’s return to democracy greater than three a long time in the past.
Throughout his victory speech, Janja was by Lula’s facet as she was all through his marketing campaign. She shed tears, and she or he wasn’t alone.
“I cried when he was jailed. Now I cry as a result of he’ll take Brazil again to regular,” mentioned Claudia Marcos, a historian who joined hundreds of different folks to have fun the leftist’s victory on Sao Paulo’s fundamental boulevard. “He can do it. He has the charisma to do it.
“He’s our phoenix. Crucial president in Brazil’s historical past.”
On the Staff’ Social gathering’s headquarters on Sunday, Lula learn out a protracted, rigorously written speech promising to unite Brazil. He’ll take workplace on January 1, and has mentioned he gained’t search re-election. Meaning this presidential time period might be his last act.
“It’s not the variety of years that makes somebody previous. What makes you previous is the shortage of a trigger,” mentioned Lula, who turned 77 three days earlier than the vote. “Brazil is my trigger. The Brazilian persons are my trigger.”
World
Christmas in Puerto Rico is a 45-day celebration with caroling, festive decorations, family feasts and more
Christmas, Navidad in Puerto Rico, extends far beyond Dec. 25.
The island proudly proclaims itself as having the “longest holiday season in the world,” according to the website Discover Puerto Rico.
On average, the holiday festivities in Puerto Rico last about 45 days, per the source, commencing right after Thanksgiving, and stretching all the way through mid-January.
The Christmas season in Puerto Rico typically lasts around 45 days. (iStock)
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The holiday season in Puerto Rico is full of rich traditions beloved by families.
One tradition those who visit Puerto Rico will immediately notice during the holiday season is decorations.
In Puerto Rico, decorations are typically put up by Thanksgiving, and kept up until the season concludes in mid-January, with opportune picture moments at every corner.
Parrandas, Christmas caroling, is a holiday staple.
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Carolers choose houses of family and friends to visit, typically starting around 10 p.m., performing aguinaldos (traditional Christmas songs), with not only their voices, but often with instruments as well, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
The group you begin caroling with is likely not the same group you end with.
In Puerto Rico, when carolers visit a house, they’ll often stop inside for conversation, food and drink before moving to the next residence.
Coquito is a popular beverage enjoyed during the holiday season in Puerto Rico. Coconut, vanilla and rum are among the ingredients. (Mayra Beltran/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Usually, the residences of the house visited will join the group for the next house, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
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A night of serenading loved ones can last quite a while, often stretching into the early morning hours of the following day, according to the source.
The biggest day of the holiday season in Puerto Rico actually isn’t Christmas, but instead, the night before.
In Puerto Rico, Dec. 24 is Nochebuena. On that day, loved ones gather for the exchange of gifts, caroling and a large feast.
Many families will also attend a midnight Mass on the day, known as Misa de Gallo.
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After Christmas passes, the festivities go on in Puerto Rico.
Another big event in the holiday lineup is Three Kings Day on Jan. 6, a holiday that “commemorates the visit that the Three Wise Men paid to Jesus after his birth,” according to Discover Puerto Rico.
On the eve of the day, children fill up a shoebox with grass to be left for camels to munch on while the Three Kings leave behind gifts for them, according to PuertoRico.com.
For a particularly festive Three Kings Day, Juana Díaz is the place to go, as it hosts the largest celebration in Puerto Rico for the holiday. In Juana Díaz, there is an annual festival and parade in honor of Three Kings Day that brings together over 25,000 people every year, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
Gifts are primarily exchanged between loved ones on Christmas Eve in Puerto Rico. (iStock)
Then, eight days later is Octavitas, a post-holiday celebration where families get together and celebrate one last time for the season.
The end of the holiday season is marked with the San Sebastián Street Festival.
This festival, spanning over multiple days, takes place in Old San Juan, and is filled with live music, dancing, shopping and parades.
Twin-engine plane crashed in largely residential neighborhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff, authorities say.
A small plane has crashed into a tourist hotspot in southern Brazil, killing all 10 people on board and injuring more than a dozen people on the ground, officials have said.
The twin-engine Piper PA-42-1000 hit the chimney of a home and the second floor of a different house before crashing into a shop in a largely residential neighbourhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff from Canela, Brazil’s Civil Defense agency said on Sunday.
Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite told a news conference that the aircraft’s owner and pilot, Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, was killed along with nine members of his family.
Leite said that 17 people on the ground were injured, 12 of whom were still receiving treatment in hospital.
Galeazzi’s company, Galeazzi & Associados, confirmed that its CEO and Galeazzi’s wife and three daughters had died in the crash.
“Luiz Galeazzi will be forever remembered for his dedication to his family and for his remarkable career as a leader of Galeazzi & Associados,” the company said in a post on LinkedIn.
“In this moment of immense pain, Galeazzi & Associados is deeply grateful for the expressions of solidarity and affection received from friends, colleagues and the community. We also sympathize with all those affected by the accident in the region.”
Gramado, located in the Serra Gaucha mountains, is a popular destination for vacationers, especially during the Christmas season.
The crash comes a little more than a year after Brazil suffered its worst air disaster in nearly two decades when a twin-engine plane crashed in the southeastern city of Vinhedo, killing all 62 people on board.
As South Koreans took to the streets this month demanding the ousting of their president, some found an unexpected outlet to express their fury: jokes and satire.
They hoisted banners and flags with whimsical messages about cats, sea otters and food. They waved signs joking that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law had forced them to leave the comfort of their beds. Pictures of the flags spread widely on social media.
The idea was to use humor to build solidarity against Mr. Yoon, who has vowed to fight his impeachment over his ill-fated martial law decree on Dec. 3. Some waved flags for nonexistent groups like the so-called Dumpling Association, a parody of real groups like labor unions, churches or student clubs.
Video by Yu Young Jin/The New York Times
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
“I just wanted to show that we were here as part of the people even if we aren’t actually a part of a civic group,” said Kim Sae-rim, 28, who waved the flag of the dumpling group at a recent protest she went to with friends. Some groups referred to other local favorites like pizza and red bean pastries.
Kwon Oh-hyouck, a veteran protester, said that he had first seen such flags emerge during demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 that ultimately resulted in the removal of President Park Geun-hye. Mr. Kwon said that satire was part of the Korean spirit of protest.
“People satirize serious situations, even when those in power come out with guns and knives,” he said. “They are not intimidated.”
In the past month, protesters have come up with a wide range of unorthodox groupings. Some were self-proclaimed homebodies. Still others came together as people who suffered from motion sickness.
Video by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
Video by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Lee Kihoon, a professor of modern Korean history at Yonsei University in Seoul, said that he believed the flags at this month’s protests were an expression of the diversity of people galvanized by the president’s attempt to impose military rule.
“They’re trying to say: ‘Even for those of us who have nothing to do with political groups, this situation is unacceptable,’” he said. “‘I’m not a member of a party or anything, but this is outrageous.’”
Some held signs ridiculing Mr. Yoon, saying that he had separated them from their pets at home and disrupted their routine of watching Korean dramas. One group called itself a union of people running behind schedule, referring to the idea that the need to protest over martial law had forced them to reschedule their appointments.
Photo by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
And of course, there were animals, both real and fake.
Photos by Weiyi Cai/The New York Times
South Koreans have shown that protests for serious causes — like the ousting of a president — can still have an inviting, optimistic and carnival-like atmosphere.
“I don’t know if the protesters realize it, but even though they’re angry, they haven’t gotten solemn, heavy or moralistic,” Mr. Lee said. “The flags have had an effect of softening and relaxing the tension.”
On the day that lawmakers voted to impeach Mr. Yoon, protesters who were K-pop fans brought lightsticks to rallies and danced to pop songs blasting from speakers. “Even though this is a serious day,” said Lee Jung-min, a 31-year-old fan of the band Big Bang, “we might as well enjoy it and keep spirits up.”
Video by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
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