Fidel first met him in 1980 in Managua, Nicaragua, during celebrations of the Sandinista Revolution’s first anniversary. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was a Brazilian metalworker and trade union leader, convinced that to have hope, our peoples needed struggle and unity.
That’s what this same leader told me 10 years later during a visit to Cuba with other members of his trade union. It was the first time I had a chance to speak with Lula and his words conjured up the working class, the struggle, and the future.
I knew that Lula admired the Comandante en Jefe and that Fidel, in turn, was convinced from the very first time he spoke with him, that Lula possessed great human, moral and political character and was an example for current and future generations to follow.
Decades later, I sent him some questions at the Curitiba prison where he was unjustly held, and he granted me an interview that I still treasure. In June of 2018, that great man took the time to answer my questions and made sure that I received them through Frei Betto, Brazilian writer, political activist, liberation theologian and friend. Subsequently, on July 14, 2018, the interview was published in Granma.
Now a free man since November 8, 2019, Lula has always given me the impression that he is someone easy to love. I have never heard him use contrived language when discussing politics, trade unions, or any other topic. When you are near him, it seems as though you are in a metal factory, something he knows well, given his trade, experiences he recounted to me the first time we spoke.
In the prison interview, Lula said, “I’m reading and thinking a lot, it’s a moment of much reflection about Brazil and especially everything that has happened in recent times. I am at peace with my conscience and I doubt that all those who lied about me sleep as peacefully as I do. ”
Of course I would like to be free and doing what I have done all my life: talking with the people. But I am aware that the injustice being committed against me is also an injustice against the Brazilian people,” he added.
And that’s exactly what it was since day one, when the Brazilian “injustice” system deprived Lula, the people, and the Workers Party of certain victory in the October 2018 Presidential elections, when all polls gave him a 20-point lead over his closest opponent.
During Lula’s incarceration, the Brazilian people traveled to Curitiba, including from the remotest areas of the huge South American country. They greeted him every morning when he woke up, and every evening, they wished him a good night.
As Lula has said, he did not feel alone on one single day during the 580 days and nights of his imprisonment.
“The relationship that I have built over decades with the Brazilian people, with social movement organizations, is a very trusting relationship and it is something that I greatly appreciate, because in my entire political career I always insisted on never betraying that trust. And I would not betray that trust for any amount of money, for an apartment, for nothing. That was the case before being President, during my Presidency and afterwards. So, for me, that solidarity is something that moves me and encourages me to stand firm.”
So, when he left that unjust prison and thousands of Brazilians greeted him outside, I realized that the Lula I admire, rather than being tired out by his days in confinement, had actually risen to a higher level, hoisting the same banner, always with the people, and the optimism he has had since he worked as a shoeshine boy, a dry cleaning assistant, and starting at the age of 14, a metalworker.
Lula has been reunited with his people. The man, who as President of Brazil, managed to lift 30 million fellow citizens from poverty, brought life and hope to the millions who waited for him through his incarceration, to join him in the new battles ahead in a convulsing world, where change is both possible and necessary.
