Brazil’s stunning conviction

Sérgio Moro, the federal judge commanding the prosecution in Brazil’s corruption probe, spoke with a heavy heart. Only seven years ago, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was Brazil’s most popular president — perhaps the world’s. Last week, Moro convicted the man so charismatic he is simply known as “Lula” of corruption charges and sentenced him to almost 10 years in jail, subject to appeal.

The decision, although expected even by Lula’s defence, is stunning. Lula was credited with projecting Brazil on to the world stage and lifting millions out of poverty. He was considered a strong runner for the 2018 presidential election. Now he has been found guilty of receiving a kickback from construction company OAS. Yet however extraordinary, Lula’s conviction is only the latest in Brazil’s Operation Car Wash corruption investigation and related probes.

Over the past three years, these have led to the conviction of dozens of Brazilian politicians — all members of the formerly immune “do you know who I am?” crowd. The effects have rippled across Latin America, where corruption scandals hang over the heads of a number of former presidents, from Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli.

In Brazil, public rage over government corruption and incompetence indirectly led to the impeachment in 2016 of president Dilma Rousseff. It may yet lead to the impeachment of Michel Temer, the current president, who is being investigated over possible bribes from JBS, the world’s largest meat-packing company.

As a corruption purge, Brazil’s has been sweeping and politically impartial and its independent judiciary a salutary example. It holds out the prospect of a genuinely better country. But it has also been radically unsettling. Still, the price of not purging would be far higher. The sorry state of neighbouring Venezuela is a lesson in the cost of impunity. London, July 14.