Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as Brazil’s president on Sunday.
In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s biggest country, the leftist said democracy was the true winner of the October presidential vote, when he ousted Bolsonaro in the most fraught election for a generation.
Lula described Bolsonaro’s government as one the worst periods in Brazilian history and called the last few years “an era of shadows, doubts and a lot of suffering.”
Lula’s plans for government provided a stark contrast to Bolsonaro’s four years in office, which were characterized by backsliding on environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest, looser gun laws and weaker protections for indigenous peoples and minorities.
