Brazil’s Da Silva in police custody after supporters mount standoff
SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil — Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was taken into police custody on Saturday after a tense showdown with his own supporters, the capstone of an intense three days that underscored raw emotions over the incarceration of a once wildly popular leader who has been engulfed by corruption allegations.
Just hours earlier, da Silva told thousands of supporters that he would turn himself in to police, but also maintained his innocence and argued his corruption conviction was simply a way for enemies to make sure he doesn’t run — and possibly win — re-election in October.
When he first tried to leave to turn himself in, however, dozens of supporters blocked a gate where a car carrying da Silva was trying to exit.
“Surround, surround [the building] and don’t let them arrest him,” chanted supporters. After a few minutes of tense words between guards and supporters, the former president got out of the car and entered the metal workers union headquarters where he had been holed up.
Police vehicles surrounded the union that was the birthplace of da Silva’s rise to power. Da Silva emerged a second time shortly after nightfall, this time surrounded by bodyguards who pushed back scores of supporters who tried to stop his advance.
The latest drama began when the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s top court, ruled against his petition on Thursday to remain free while he continued to appeal his conviction.
Judge Sergio Moro, who oversees many of the socalled “Car Wash” cases, then ordered an arrest warrant for da Silva, giving him until 5 p.m. Friday to present himself to police in Curitiba and begin serving his 12-year sentence.
Da Silva, whom Brazilians simply call “Lula,” did no such thing. Instead, he hunkered down with supporters in the union headquarters.
Still, da Silva said he would turn himself in “to go there and face them eye to eye. The more days they leave me [in jail], the more Lulas will be born in this country.”
Last year, Moro convicted da Silva of trading favours with a construction company in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. That conviction was upheld by an appeals court in January. The former president has always denied wrongdoing in that case and in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried.
Da Silva, 72, governed from 2003 to 2010.