Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: 'Why They Want to Condemn Me'

10/20/2016 - 12h01

In more than 40 years as a public figure, my personal life has been continuously scrutinized - by public security agencies, political adversaries, the press. Because I have worked for the workers' freedom of organization, I was even arrested as I was sentenced for subversion by the infamous National Security Law of the Brazilian dictatorship. But they have never found a single illegal act from my quarter.

I know what I did before, during and after I was president. I have never committed a crime, I have never done anything that might stain my reputation.

I was the president of Brazil with integrity and dedication because I knew that a worker could not make any mistakes as president. The false accusations they have made against me did not intend to harm me as a person, but the political project that I have always represented: a country with more justice and opportunities for all.

Now, shortly before my 71st birthday, I see my name at the center of a real judicial hunt. They have investigated my personal accounts thoroughly, as they did with my wife's and my children's; they wiretapped my phones and disclosed the contents of my calls; they invaded my home and forced me to testify in a bench warrant, without a plausible reason or legal grounds.

They are looking for a crime to accuse me of, but they haven't found one and they will not find.

Ever since this hunt began, during the 2014 presidential campaign, I have travelled along the course of Law, but I never gave up my plans. I still travel across the country, I meet with labor unions and representatives of social movements, leaders of political parties to debate and defend the project to change this country.

I didn't stop to lament nor did I give up the fight for equality and social justice.In these meetings, I renew my faith in the Brazilian people and in the future of the country.

I can verify that every achievement we reached during the PT administrations is still alive in our people's memory and they include the projects of Bolsa Família, Luz Para Todos, Minha Casa, Minha Vida, the new Pronaf (National Program to Strengthen Family Farming), the Program for Food Purchase, the appreciation of workers' salaries - altogether, these programs drove the biggest social ascension in the history of Brazil.

Our people will never forget the millions of young, black and poor people who have obtained more access to a college education. Brazilians will resist the current setbacks because Brazil wants more, and not fewer, rights.

I cannot keep quiet, however, when I see the abuses performed by government agents who use the law as an instrument of political persecution. It was made clear in the second round of the municipal elections: all you have to do is to see how the PT has been the target of a hunt: the acceptance of an accusation against me, five days after it was presented, and the arrest of two formers ministers of my administration were theatrical episodes that certainly affected the results of the elections.

I have never performed, authorized or benefited from illegal acts in Petrobras or any other government sector. Since the 2014 election campaign, we have heard the narrative that the PT is no longer a political party, but a "criminal organization," and that I was the leader of this organization.

This idea has been reinforced over and over again by newspaper headlines, magazine covers, on the radio and on television. The idea must be proved by force, as "there aren't facts, but convictions."

I believe that those who accuse me really believe in this malicious thesis, perhaps judging everybody else according to their own moral standards. But the fallacy of this story is quite clear, especially given the difference between the billion-dollar embezzlements under investigation and what they say is the fruit of the alleged plunder of the "head of the criminal organization."

I also see a dangerous ignorance of the law agents regarding the way the government and the institutions work.

I reached this conclusion during the testimonies that I gave and written down by police chiefs and public prosecutors who did not know how a coalition government works, the proceedings of a provisional measure or of a bidding process, or even how the joint and technical analyses and approvals of financing in a public bank, such as the BNDES, work.

Besides, during these testimonies, I was never objectively questioned on the hypothesis underlying the accusation. I really have the impression that they were nothing but empty bureaucratic rites, to perform the official steps and carry out formal proceedings. Certainly they did not serve to the concrete exercise of the right to defense.

Two years after these operations, which were always disclosed with much fanfare, they did not manage to find anything they could use to connect my name to the embezzlements under investigation.

Not even a single penny did I fail to declare, nor did they find a front company or a hidden account.

I have lived in the same apartment in São Bernardo for the last 20 years. Among the dozens of defendant informers, none of them said they had any illegal or dishonest businesses with me, in spite of the public agents' insistence for them to do so, and even with the possibility of benefiting from it.

The careless, disproportional accusations, without any legal grounds, are surprising and disgusting - in much the same way that the judges process them with diligence.

They don't care for facts, evidence and correct legal proceedings any more. They accuse and process the accusations based on mere conviction - and the fact that the higher courts and agencies of functional control take absolutely no measures regarding it is very serious.

They have accused me, for example, of having received an apartment from illegal sources - an apartment that has never belonged to me simply because I did not want to buy it when the opportunity arose, not even after it was renovated - which would be make its price increase, obviously. As it is impossible to demonstrate that the apartment belongs to me, because it never did, I have been accused of hiding it, in a surrealistic tale.

I have also been accused of corruption as I allegedly gave lectures to companies investigated by the Federal Police's Lava Jato operation.

How can I be accused of corruption if I haven't had a public job since 2011, when I began to give these lectures? And what relation could there be between the embezzlements in Petrobras and the lectures, all of them recorded, which I gave to 42 companies and organizations of various sectors, not only the five under investigation, charging the same price and paying taxes on them?

Those who accuse me know that I did not steal, that I was never corrupted or tried to block investigations - but they cannot admit it. They cannot go back after the massacre they have promoted in the press.

They became prisoners of the lies they created, most of them from factious or poorly investigated news reports. They are condemned to condemn and they must keep in mind that, if I am not arrested, they will be demoralized in the eyes of the public.

I try to see this hunt as part of a political dispute, although it is a disgusting way of fighting. They are not trying to condemn Lula: they are after the political project that I represent along with millions of Brazilians.

In their attempt to destroy a way of thinking, they are destroying the pillars of democracy in Brazil.

We must stress that we, members of the PT, have always supported the investigations, trials and punishment of those who embezzle public money, the money that belongs to the people. That is not a rhetorical statement: we fight corruption in practice.

No other person has done so much to create transparency mechanisms as well as those to control public funds, to strengthen the Brazilian Federal Police, the Brazilian Internal Revenue Agency and the Public Prosecutor's Office, we have worked hard to approve in congress more efficient laws against corruption and organized crime. That was recognized even by the prosecutors who are accusing us now.

My mind is at ease and I have the Brazilian people's recognition. I believe that, sooner or later, justice and the truth will prevail, even if it only occurs in the history books.

What worries me and all those who truly defend democracy are the continuous violations against the democratic state ruled by law. It is the shadow of the state of exception that is beginning to rise in the country.

LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA was the president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. He is the honorary president of the PT (Workers' Party).

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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