Luís Inácio Lula da Silva – President

The popular expression “third time lucky” was not the case for Luis Inácio Lula da Silva who was only managed to be elected president of the largest and most populated country in South America on his fourth attempt.
The first attempt, in 1989 and after 29 years without direct elections for the position, Lula da Silva was defeated in the second round by Fernando Collor de Mello. Later he became involved in the anti-corruption campaign which ended with the president’s impeachment.

In 1994 and 1998 Lula da Silva was defeated by the same candidate, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who made full use of the fear of change most of the Brazilian population had.

In 2002, the Workers’ Party approved the establishment of a political alliance that also involved the Liberal, Brazilian Communist and National Mobilization parties. The vice-presidential candidate was senator José Alencar, from the Liberal Party. On October 27, Lula da Silva was elected president.

Born in October 1945 in a poor region of Northern Brazil, Lula da Silva is the seventh of eight children. In 1952 the family migrated to the Sao Paulo coast and four year’s later to the city itself. At the age of 12 he began working and after a number of jobs he managed to get a place as a metal turner with the National Industry Service. After a three year course Lula da Silva became a metallurgist.

When, in 1969, the Union of Metallurgists of Sao Bernardo do Campo and Diadema, in the Sao Paulo industrial belt, held elections, Lula da Silva was elected as alternate. In the following election he was elected as first secretary. Three years later he was president of the union.

On February 10, 1980 Lula da Silva founded the Workers’ Party, as he felt that the National Congress had no politicians who represented the working classes. Twenty two years later he was elected President of the Republic as a candidate for his own party.

Ambassador Celso Amorim – External Relations Minister

Born in Santos, Sao Paulo in June 1942, the current Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, was the ambassador of Brazil in London until he accepted a position in Lula da Silva’s government.

A Doctor of Political Science and International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Celso Amorim had already been Foreign Minister in 1993/94, at the time of the government of President Itamar Franco.

His first foreign post was in London and he spent time in Washington, The Organization of American States, the Hague, as deputy chief of the Embassy in Geneva, as permanent representative at the UN and other related international organizations, New York, and finally in Geneva, where he was the permanent representative for Brazil at the World Trade Organization
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Câmara Brasil-China de Desenvolvimento Econômico
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Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Brasil-China
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Departamento de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento do Comércio Exterior
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