It's Lula, to end the barbarity.

Overcoming the nightmare of having gone through a pandemic where your own country's president neglected, mocked, and sabotaged all measures to contain, prevent, and treat the disease will not be easy or quick. Of the 20 largest economies in the world, Brazil was, proportionally, the place where Covid-19 killed the most people. 

Despite its history as a model country for mass vaccination, Bolsonaro and his morbid team managed to alienate the population, leading his supporters (still influenced by the perverse actions of evangelical leaders) to gather en masse during the most critical moments, when sensitive and cautious leadership was most needed. Political speculation and mediocre denialism all combined to bring the situation to a shameful level, which is how Bolsonarism became what it still is today: a sect of intolerant and alienated fanatics who compete, at any cost and without shame, for only one thing: power. Bolsonaro and all those who were not annoyed by him, or who even celebrated and were active accomplices in the barbarities committed during the Covid-19 pandemic, have only one thing on their minds: to profit from power and gain as much as possible from it, even when the cost may be spreading lies and more lies until they reach the point of creating a bizarre parallel reality that is increasingly distant from all rationality and coherence with what actually happens in the world.

The country was divided. Those who had supported Bolsonaro from a place of criticism of what they perceived as the destruction of institutions by the Workers' Party, now saw the monster to which they had given overwhelming and lethal power for most of the Brazilian population. Bolsonaro continued with privatizations, the destruction of the minimum wage, constant confrontations and intimidation of the press and institutions, corruption cases involving ministers, his sons, and practically everyone who had been on his side. He needed to keep all controversial actions under investigation by the public prosecutor's office secret. The country became hostage to a troupe of incompetent and authoritarian corrupt individuals, constantly threatening to call in the armed forces if anyone questioned the suspicious and spurious activities in which they were the direct or indirect protagonists. 

And so four years passed. The country's Amazon rainforest has been deforested and plundered like never before. Colossal inflation in basic goods has pushed millions back onto the hunger map, something that seemed impossible to happen again.

With a weak, disoriented, and leaderless left, Lula's name emerged once again. After being released from the political prison where he was placed by this criminal right wing to seize power, Lula returned. And he brought with him once again the discourse of inclusion, diversity, tolerance, and valuing the lower strata of Brazilian society.

Just when it seemed we had reached the end of the story of politics for workers, the marginalized, the excluded; when it seemed that simply having many followers on social media or views on YouTube was enough to achieve success in politics, as if teleported by a time machine from the era of the dictatorship, the sensitive old union leader, who loves Brazil wholeheartedly, who loves its artists, who manages to dialogue with all sectors vying for space in Brazilian society, the one who made mistakes and had questionable statements but who, like every living being, evolved and adapted to the new demands of a new society, with a new generation that today is the driving force behind the changes possible within the institutional sphere, Lula arrives with the support of people who didn't know him as president, who have no memories of him as the first leader, but with the references of those who lived through a time when the barriers that prevented the lower strata of society from having opportunities for social advancement were broken down. 

Lula, the old union leader who lost a finger in a press at the metalworking factory where his political consciousness began to blossom, Lula, the most influential and globally recognized active Latin American politician. Lula is, by far, the best president Brazil has ever had. He leads the largest political party in Brazil and the second largest left-wing political party in the world. He emerged from extreme poverty and became one of the greatest statesmen of the 21st century without a university degree. And at 75 years old (yes, at that unusual age), this old warrior is the one who will finally stop the troglodyte fascism that has taken over the country. The howitzer of hope bears a mark engraved with fire: 13 on them.