Commentary
When running as a candidate for the 2002 presidential elections, Brazil’s former president and now presidential candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as “Lula,” pledged to do everything to combat corruption. In 2002, he even signed an “Anti-Corruption Pledge” prepared by Transparency International.
Ironically, however, corruption ended up reaching unprecedented levels during the Lula administration, from 2002 to 2010. Numerous of his closest advisers, congressional leaders, and party bosses were deeply involved in large-scale transfers of public funds into electoral campaigns, private enrichment, and financing of full-time public functionaries.
The first in a continuous series of corruption schemes was unveiled in February 2004, with a video recording of Waldomiro Diniz, the deputy chief for parliamentary affairs, collecting bribes from a gambling tycoon for the electoral campaign of Workers’ Party (PT) politicians. Since the action was both filmed and recorded, Lula had no other option but to dismiss him from the party….