Maluf, the man everyone loves to hate.

Never before in this country has a politician with enormous popularity suffered such extreme and widespread rejection as that experienced by former President Luiz Inácio Lula when photos of his cheerful get-together with Paulo Maluf were released.

It is obvious that such a reaction was mainly from a well-informed public, interested in politics, following it through the press or the internet (where those images resonated in the most negative way possible). So far, the impression made on those who see Lula as the new father of the poor has not been gauged. Were they outraged? At least do they know who Maluf is?

And do the well-meaning people know?

I, who have followed Maluf's career since the beginning, have always found it strange that these recent figures have elevated him to the most despicable of all despicable right-wing politicians.

In a memorable heated exchange during an election debate, Leonel Brizola repeatedly referred to him as a "puppy of the dictatorship," which isn't entirely true.

The paradigmatic offspring were those unremarkable and subservient politicians who only governed São Paulo thanks to the approval of the dictators, such as Laudo Natel and Paulo Egydio Martins.

Maluf was, in fact, a right-wing toad that the far-right dictatorship swallowed. With luck and considerable skill in co-opting and corrupting delegates, he managed to crash the party three times.

Dona Flor and her two husbands

Governor Abreu Sodré chose Luiz Arroba Martins to be appointed mayor of São Paulo, but the latter made the mistake of criticizing the central government during a meeting at the Palácio dos Bandeirantes. The military immediately vetoed him, and Sodré was forced to accept the appointment of the alternative candidate, the president of the Commercial Association whom Delfim Netto protected. Thus, Maluf became mayor (1969-1971).

With his hands-on approach to construction, he accomplished many projects, both as mayor and as Secretary of Transportation in the Natel administration (1971-1975). And, of course, corruption ran rampant—which was nothing new in Brazil. Just look at his most famous predecessor in São Paulo, the federal interventor, mayor, and governor Adhemar de Barros, popularly known as "the thief, but he gets things done."

I would thank Natel for the springboard he provided for his political rise... by betraying him and defeating him in a humiliating way. Natel was chosen by the military to govern São Paulo for the third time and thought that the ARENA party members would salute him; he didn't give a damn about them.

Maluf visited all 1.261 members, one by one, and with his usual resounding arguments, ended up seducing 617 and winning the convention by a difference of 28 votes. The military officers, stunned, considered overturning the decision, but ultimately resigned themselves to it.

It wasn't anything personal, just business?

They grew tired of arbitrarily removing opposition politicians and those who, even though they were on their side during the coup, later went on to defend the redemocratization of the country. However, they hesitated to give the same treatment to the one who was their biggest sycophant; Maluf only contradicted them regarding his personal ambitions, abjectly kissing their boots in every other respect.

The worst aspect of Maluf, the reason that makes him most deserving of condemnation (in my opinion), was that, as governor (1979-1982), he gave carte blanche to the Military Police's shock troops, the ROTA, to terrorize poor neighborhoods, acting with excessive brutality and exterminating criminals with a zeal comparable to that of the old Death Squad.

It's worth remembering that, in "Route 66 - The Police That Kills," reporter Caco Barcelos documented 4.200 cases (totaling 12 innocent victims) of murders committed by the ROTA (Special Police Operations Unit) in the 1970s and 1980s, targeting, almost always, poor, mixed-race, and black young people, often without criminal records. The honest citizens mistakenly killed would outnumber the real criminals – whose status, of course, did not exempt the police from the duty of bringing them to justice, instead of simply killing them like flies.

DISTORTED VALUES

To this day, it outrages me that Maluf became a wanted criminal by Interpol for financial crimes and not as a patron and instigator of serial killers, ultimately responsible for countless executions disguised as resistance to arrest. This gives a good idea of ​​the inhumane scale of values ​​of the capitalist system...

In the dying days of the dictatorship, Maluf repeated the feat of winning over the delegates of the ruling party, convincing them not to endorse Mário Andreazza's official candidacy. However, some of them preferred to defect and form the PFL, ensuring their continued hold on power as allies of the PMDB.

It was the end of Maluf's presidential chances; he came close but didn't make it... thankfully! He had to settle for being mayor of São Paulo once again (1993-1996), but his attempt at a new takeoff stalled when his successor, Celso Pitta, had a scandalous administration and ended up being rejected as bad or terrible by 83% of São Paulo residents.

Lula saved Sarney from being ousted. Can you believe it?

And Maluf ended up being even more reviled than Fernando Collor, the other important right-wing populist of recent decades. He deserves it for his absolute disregard for human rights, especially those of the poor and excluded. But, in all other respects, corruption included, the two are cut from the same cloth.

As for Lula, I consider his complicity with Maluf as infamous as with three other major villains of the right: Collor (who, incidentally, had exposed and exploited his adultery and the existence of an illegitimate daughter electorally), Sarney (the puppet of the dictatorship who managed to continue polluting the political scene after 1985), and ACM (the northeastern political boss who accumulated the most power during the dictatorship).

I don't know why the cup overflowed this time. But Lula's intuition seems to have evaporated, because the consequence of those photos was more than predictable.

Celso Lungaretti is a journalist, writer, and maintains the blog Shipwrecked in Utopia.