Former Brazilian Presidnet Lula da Silva Thursday forcefully denounced corruption charges against himself and his wife and in a snide reference to the unelected government that had overthrown his successor, he said that "it has been shown that bureaucracy is more powerful than the President of the country."
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Popularly known simply as "Lula," da Silva said at a Thursday afternoon press conference that his Worker' Party "government was the most inclusive Brazil has ever seen," and invested heavily in education, and had made every effort to rid the country of longstanding corruption.
The implication couldn´t be clearer. Rousseff is a woman of color, and she'd been replaced by an unelected administration of white men, nearly half of whom are under investigation for corruption, public malfeasance, bribe-taking and influence peddling while in office. Rousseff, on the other hand, was impeached for "cooking the books" to make Brazil's financial situation appear better than it was in the runup to her reelection campaign.
Making refference to Dilma Rousseff's senate impeachement, Lula said that "it has been shown that bureaucracy is more powerful than the President of the country," calling the whole process a "spectale." He also hinted that he will indeed run in the next presidential election.
"If my adversaries want to bring me down, they will have to fight me with votes."
Lula and his wife, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva, are formally accused of corruption, fraud and money laundering. Leo Pinheiro, former president of the construction company OAS, and Paulo Gordilho, an engineer at the construction company, are also accused of corruption.
According to allegations from federal police, Lula was the mastermind of the corruption scheme at the state-managed oil company, Petrobras, and directly benefited in the form of a gifted apartment in Guaruja and a farm in Atibaia, both in the state of Sao Paulo.
Supporters argue the actions against Lula are politically-motivated and an attempt to prevent him from running as president in the next election in 2018.
Lula remains a popular figure, and some believe he is the odds-on-favorite to win the next presidential poll.