Lula Faces Powerful Opposition as He Seeks To Protect the Amazon and Recognize Indigenous Rights

Brazil’s president is determined to save his country’s rainforest but agribusiness and its political supporters stand in his way

By Farai Shawn Matiashe
June 29, 2023

Surrounded by thousands of supporters, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known simply as “Lula”) was sworn into office on Jan. 1, 2023, at a colorful inauguration ceremony held at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. It was not Lula’s first time assuming the highest office of Latin America’s largest country. He was first sworn in two decades ago and served two terms as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. The 67-year-old is a true veteran of Brazilian politics: He was the presidential candidate of the leftist Workers’ Party in 1989, 1994 and 1998, losing each time. In the October 2022 elections, he narrowly defeated the right-wing populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, with 50.9% of the vote.

In his third term as president, Lula faces the formidable task of uniting a deeply polarized Brazilian society. Bolsonaro, a close ally of Donald Trump, did not attend the traditional handover of the presidential sash to his successor. Instead, he repaired to Florida after his defeat and sat out the inauguration. Just a week after Lula assumed the presidency, pro-Bolsonaro militants stormed the Congress in Brasilia in a manner reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

During his campaign, Lula promised to combat deforestation in the Amazon, which worsened under Bolsonaro’s presidency. Brazil is home to nearly 60% of the Amazon, the largest tropical rainforest on the planet. (The remainder is shared by eight other South American nations, principally Peru and Colombia.) Bolsonaro, a consistent defender of Brazil’s powerful agricultural industry, backed farm and ranching expansion in the Amazon.

Lula hit the ground running by appointing the longtime environmentalist Marina Silva as his environment and climate change minister. Silva’s mission is to rebuild Brazil’s environmental protection agencies and stanch the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Lula also appointed the first-ever Indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s Congress, Joenia Wapichana, as leader of the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, popularly known as FUNAI.

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