Lula can reorient Brazil to Latin American integration

The polarization that has taken place in Brazil since the triumph of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the presidential elections is about the difference between the two projects and the defense or not of democracy as a place from which the future of the Brazilian nation can be thought.

It also strengthens a process in which the peoples and left-wing forces of diverse positions in Latin America and the Caribbean are consolidating. It is a historic stage: never before has the region experienced a moment in which so many countries were governed by projects of this ideology, beyond their natural differences, said UNAM academics.

Regina Crespo Franzoni, from the National University's Center for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, said at the distance press conference "Brazil: after the elections...":

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, carried out a project to destroy the social inclusion policy implemented by the previous governments of the Workers' Party, which was dismantled, and now "we fear a very complex mission that Lula will face in the coming months and years".

The university professor expressed a "lack of critical sense" of the mass of Bolsonaristas to understand that they lost the presidential election, but also managed to build in time a clear right-wing base, with which the government that starts next January 1st will have difficulties to deal with.

The expert pointed out that Brazil is, by definition, an unjust, unequal, and conservative country, and this is an effective "breeding ground" for several elements related to the apology of the dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, which is sold to people without historical memory as an "excellent period" of growth, order, and progress.

It has also propitiated a policy of fake news: Brazilians practically inform themselves through social networks such as WhatsApp and that is a perfect element for a policy of disinformation, anti-intellectualism, and demonization of politics as a legitimate tool for social transformation, Crespo Franzoni stressed.

It also allows the construction of an "internal enemy": "the leftists are to blame", and "we do not want communism", but if you ask an ordinary person what he understands by that concept, he does not know what it is, but he knows that it is "something" against his family, his property, God and the homeland.

Similarly, a rhetorical nationalism that has a fundamentalist base was stimulated. This conservative agenda is a perfect tool for the apology of dictatorship, of the construction of an internal enemy that polarizes and divides society.

Lula has a task ahead

He estimated that Lula has a Herculean (vigorous) task ahead; fortunately, he is a politician characterized by his capacity for listening, dialogue and conciliation. He will have to agree on the agenda of the campaign and satisfy the elements coming from different political colorations (left, center-left, democratic right, etc.), and dialogue with the social movements, but not to the concert "with the forces that are trying to cause chaos".

This will be dynamic in the next two months, in particular, to prevent a new project of the country from becoming possible again in a nation that is fragilized by so much injustice and demobilization, said Crespo Franzoni.

Nayar López Castellanos, professor of the School of Political and Social Sciences, pointed out that in the foreign sphere, Lula's triumph should be understood as a second stage or reconversion of this experience of so-called progressive governments in the Latin American region in the 21st century.

With his arrival and the reincorporation of Brazil into the motley political geometry of the center to the left, that nation will be able to reposition itself as a fundamental factor in Latin American integration, an essential actor in the logic of South-South relations, and resume a series of initiatives in the sense of integration, as well as a sovereign vision of the region.

Hopefully, we can glimpse a stronger, more solid, and active Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, beyond well-intentioned or occasional speeches, working on deeper and structural aspects. There "Lula will play a very important role".

The Brazilian people obtained achievement in the last elections, with Lula's victory amid a dirty war (such as the closing of roads so that people could not go to vote). Now, unity is needed in Latin America because the adversities, including the permanent adversity of the United States, and those of the world itself, such as the ecological collapse, global warming, and the current global economic crisis, are not enough.