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Written by Uriel Araujo, PhD, anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
79-year-old Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (better known as Lula) was discharged from the hospital this Sunday after undergoing surgery to stop a brain bleed. He gave a press conference and later on an interview to TV Show “Fantastico”, looking and sounding very healthy. This public appearance of his helped to finally dispel some rumors and conspiracy theories about the President’s condition, amid an ongoing political crisis.
During a press conference, in a manner that is typical of his style, Lula said:
“I’m here alive and kicking, and ready to work. And I’ll tell you something I used to say during the campaign. I’m 79 years old, but I have the energy of a 30-year-old man and the virility [enthusiasm] of a 20-year-old—to build this country.”
He also claimed he has “the right” to live 120 years. Medical-wise, not everyone is so sure about his vigor, though. More importantly, there is a crisis of legitimacy and trust pertaining to key Brazilian institutions, such as the Judiciary, the election system, and the Army in a very polarized country. And questions about Lula’s health can only contribute to further aggravating it.
During the week the Brazilian President stayed in hospital, the lack of photographs or videos of him (before the press conference) fed suspicions. The only video released by the First Lady was even accused by some of being a “deep fake” created by AI due to some oddities in it.
According to a news report, Lula could in fact have died on December 9, Monday and only avoided such a fate thanks to a businessman close to him. After a meeting with Lula (that was not officially scheduled), entrepreneur José Seripieri Filho, a close friend, took the initiative to inform Lula’s personal doctor, cardiologist Roberto Kalil Filho, that the president did not look well.
Lula was firstly taken to the Sirio-Libanes hospital in Brasilia at around 6:30 p.m., with the presidential convoy strangely leaving the Planalto Palace through the back door. The flag of the Presidency of the Republic remained hoisted until 8:00 p.m., thus falsely indicating that the President was still there—so as to mislead journalists (the reasons for that are unknown).
The brain bleeding was progressing and Lula could have been dead by Tuesday morning if no measures had been taken. The medical team then decided to take Lula to Sao Paulo even though the trip posed risks and it is still unclear why. A Brazilian Air Force plane was used, but at first both the Planalto and the Armed Forces refused to disclose which plane was used for flying the President for unknown reasons.
Some degree of paranoia is quite expected, considering the current political climate in Brazil: besides a recent right-wing suicide bombing attack at the Supreme Court (no victims), it has recently surfaced that there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government of then-newly elected President Luis Lula in 2023.
Last month, Brazilian Federal Police arrested five officers, including a retired brigadier general. The co-conspirators are accused of having worked with a number of scenarios, which included plans for kidnapping or assassinating President Lula (by poisoning), as well as killing his Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, among others. All of the conspirators (most Special Forces officers) had connections to or worked for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has casted doubts about the validity of the 2022 elections, when he ran for reelection and was defeated by Lula da Silva by a tight margin.
It seems Bolsonaro (who is also being investigated) knew about such plans but ultimately vetoed them or changed his mind and aborted the operation due to lack of support from the Army. More recently, retired General Walter Braga Netto (former Minister under Bolsonaro as well as Bolsonaro’s 2022 running mate) was also arrested and is under investigation for involvement in the same alleged Bolsonaro’s coup plan. Controversial Justice Moraes himself, who was a target and potential victim of the plot, is, at the same time, the judge supervising the police investigation (on the plot to kill him), which is highly irregular.
While Lula was at the hospital, he was said to be working, even while staying at the ICU, which is of course very awkward, to say the least. He was even sanctioning pieces of legislation into law, according to Ministers of State. A piece of legislation signed was one regulating the carbon credit market in Brazil. This is at a time when a tax reform project is being discussed in the Parliament, among other pressing issues.
Most of the Brazilian press kept reporting on how “excellent” the health of the 79-year-old Head of State was, even though he underwent three procedures in a week, and has had significant trauma to the head in the occipital region for two months, due to allegedly having had a toilet-related injury in October.
Alexandre Padilha, Minister of Institutional Relations, said that there was “an agreement”, according to which, “Lula”, even while hospitalized, would be signing “everything that has a deadline for approval”. He added that “there is a mechanism, which is led by the Chief of Staff of the Presidency, for this signature.” Moreover, Lula never took a sick certificate and thus his Vice-President, Geraldo Alckmin, could not serve as pro tempore until the President was discharged.
Strangely enough, Padilha even stressed that Lula remained serving in his presidential capacities “fully” (employing an ambiguous Portuguese word which can also be interpreted as “permanently”). During that busy week, some Brazilian media news reports claimed that the Vice-President was being sidelined, and that Rui Costa, Chief of Staff of the Presidency, was the one actually calling the shots. In a manner reminiscent of Joe Biden’s cognition scandal, the lack of transparency and all of this makes many observers wonder who is (or will be) de facto ruling Brazil in case Lula’s health continues to decline.
Another scandal has to do with the role of the First Lady, Lula’s new wife, Rosangela Lula da Silva, better known as Janja. She is accused of playing a Rasputin-like role, and of acting as a de facto “Minister of Propaganda” for Lula, thereby usurping the roles of the President Office’s Secretariat for Social communication. She reportedly is the one who decided what would be disclosed to the media about Lula’s health and what would not.
To sum it up, Lula is back, and supposedly strong as a bull, but doubts about his health and ability to run the country remain. He is his party’s favorite possible candidate for reelection—the one and only, in fact. Meanwhile the right-wing opposition’s most popular leader, Jair Bolsonaro, is banned from running (although he has been lobbying for a pardon) and is being investigated for an alleged plan to murder the incumbent President.
One should not take for granted that the (very young) Brazilian democracy will just keep on functioning normally according to the rule of law. According to some, this is no longer the case now, with an authoritarian Judiciary and a radicalized right-wing. This situation generates a lot of instability and unpredictability in Latin America, Brazil being a natural leader at the region—and this at a time when the continent is once again in the spotlight, with the Venezuela crisis and Donald Trump’s plans for Mexico as well as his choice of Latin America hawk Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.
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all the western hemisphere nations are the results of banker schemes and colonialism. all of them suffer from critical flaws including diverse population groups descended from slaves and conquered people, none of whom get along or fit in together very well. they all also suffer from fake democracies which are really controlled by hereditary banking clans.
how can any of it end up good for the majority of people? the ruling class is constantly looting us all with one self created crisis after another that drives inflation and makes the banking cartels profits via ever rising interest rates and ‘shortages’.
the ruling families own the lands ,the rivers lakes oceans seas resources including g human .the banks are their mediums as in witchcraft to be bluntly honest .
wrong .the western hemisphere was a hot bed of wars long before banking was even a thing read your history not your propagandas from neo nazis
btw the carholic emperor charlemagne overturned the church’s bibles teachings laws that made charging usury illegal ,just as sharia law still did until recently and
the carholic knights templar established banking as we know it .as a catholic institution .long before they set the bauer family up .centuries before.
unity in any country is a back bone of national strength.lula should forgive bolsanaro.bolsanaro made mistakes.but t the end stood up for lulas true credentials.united we stand devided we fall.
countries are divided by democracy ,that’s why they set it up the fact that it turned on them and actually became real ,in a sense , is their worst nightmare. now they have to try to repair their own damage the truth is they screw up imo and they will destroy this living planet because they’re not that smart. they are the result of nepotism
“controversial” judge moraes? fuck off. the guy’s a tyrant and an arrogant asshole to boot.
controversial is polite for most likely corrupt.
itz rather curious how many are having brain.bleeds now it’s quite the new thing .apparently itz not connected to jabbathons