Lula acknowledges cases of corruption within Petrobras during his presidential terms

Oil in troubled waters in Brazil. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva admitted on Friday August 25 that there had been cases of corruption within the state oil company Petrobras during his presidential terms. Le candidate of the Workers’ Party promised to investigate the slightest drift if he is elected head of state in October. “We cannot say that there was no corruption if people recognized” crimes, Lula told the Globo channel, the most watched in Brazil, where his far-right competitor, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro, spoke on Monday.

Lula, favored for the October 2 poll, 47% to Jair Bolsonaro’s 32% according to an August 18 Datafolha poll, was visibly nervous at the start of the interview, and read notes to respond on corruption. “I now have the opportunity for the first time to speak openly with the people, live (…), corruption only appears when you allow it to be investigated”he said.

He then harshly criticized the anti-corruption operation Lava Jato (express washing), launched in 2016 to investigate the embezzlement of Petrobras contracts, because according to him “she has gone beyond the sphere of investigation and entered the sphere of politics” to condemn him.

Lula was detained between April 2018 and November 2019 after his corruption conviction. He regained all his political rights in 2021, when the Supreme Court overturned his convictions, finding that the court which tried him at first instance was incompetent.