Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Photo: Google

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Former Brazilian President and current presidential hopeful Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) at the National Palace on Tuesday, March 1.

The former Brazilian head of state, a diehard leftist who served as his nation’s president from 2003 to 2011 and who is running for a third term in that nation’s October 2022 elections, arrived in Mexico on Monday, Feb. 28, and was received at the Mexico City International Airport by Foreign Relations (SRE) Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who later described him as “a great friend of Mexico and the cause of justice” on his social media accounts.

Lula da Silva was convicted on charges of corruption and money laundering in 2018, but was released from jail in March 2021 after a Brazilian Supreme Court justice nullified his conviction. The Supreme Court justice was allegedly a close friend and political ally of Lula da Silva.

Although AMLO acknowledged his meeting with Lula da Silva during his morning press conference on Tuesday, he did not elaborate on what they would discuss.

However, if Lula da Silva were to win the October election, both of Latin America’s two largest economies would be run by leftists, opening the door for a regional push for socialist values.

Lula da Silva is scheduled to participate in the assembly of the National Association of Legislators of the Fourth Transformation on Wednesday, March 2.