Former Brazilian President Lula, 76, announced in early May that he would seek a third term in the October election. From then on the release in BrazilTuesday, May 31 from the book My dear Lula. Letters to a President in Custody, has a very special meaning. We almost forgot him but he remained imprisoned for 580 days until November 2019, before being released, then cleared by the Supreme Court for corruption cases.
From this incarceration, more than 25,000 letters remain today, sent by anonymous people to the former head of state and which have been digitized by a team of historians. 46 of these testimonies have been published in this book. The work makes it possible to clearly differentiate Lula from his adversary Jair Bolsonaro in this campaign. These letters say what Lula did for Brazil. Many have written to the former president to thank him for improving their lives, for allowing them to study, for lifting them out of poverty and this is a record that the current president cannot claim. .
There has been a great deal of archiving work on these testimonies, which are not only letters, moreover, there are also drawings, bibles, embroidery, engravings, which again show a particular attachment to the figure of the former president. These letters, some very touching, show the support that former President Lula never lost from the most modest Brazilians. We also wrote to him to encourage him not to flinch. There was a permanent encampment outside his prison where three times a day activists shouted his name. This incarceration deeply marked the former president according to those close to him, but also upset Brazil, since Lula was then favorite for the presidential election in 2018, which he was unable to contest and which will ultimately be won by Jair Bolsonaro.
Today, he is once again a favorite and can present himself this time. Many of these letters say just that, that he is coming back, that the situation is not lost. Like the hope of a part of the Brazilian electorate who sees in Lula the only one capable of defeating Jair Bolsonaro.