Brazil’s Lula wins historic fourth term in dramatic comeback

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, secured a fourth presidential term in the country's recent election. With 100% of the vote counted, Lula, now 81 years old, held a significant lead over his opponent, Sen. Jair Bolsonaro. The decision to extend voting by two hours due to chaos at polling places across Brazil did not change the outcome.

This victory comes at a time when many right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump have been winning in Latin America, further extending U.S. influence in the region. Lula's re-election leaves Mexico and Brazil, Latin America's two most populous nations, with left-of-center leaders. Additionally, Brazil's economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, remains independent of the U.S., despite increased tariffs imposed by Trump.

Lula, who began his political career as a union leader in the 1970s and founded the Workers' Party, won the presidency for the first time in 2002. This marks the first time since Brazil's military dictatorship ended in 1985 that the second-highest vote-getter in the first-round elections won the presidency. Lula's opponents include Bolsonaro, who received 47% of the vote in the first round, and Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for accounting mismanagement amid a corruption probe.

Lula has become one of former President Jair Bolsonaro's biggest critics since his release from prison in March after his conviction was overturned by Brazil's Supreme Court.