As we've seen in the magistral movie "V - for Vendetta", a character behind a mask will always be a character behind a mask.
As "Evey" (Portman) asked to the masked man "who you are?", "V" replied that it was a paradox to ask a masked man who he is.
That's exactly the situation of Lula da Silva.
He will never explain who he is. He has to be perceived a character in "chiaro-scuro", or in the North-American way "noir", someone emerged from an old expressionist film. Someone half in the light and half in the dark.
Lulas has two sides.
Lula is a "good guy" - The "bright" side
This is the side of Lula's personallity that he wants to be known. He over-acted this role when is needed. It is needed when he is in front of a large audience formed of countries and statesmen that he must to convice that he is a former leftist that believe in the free market but is worried with the poor and the hunger worldwide. He made his best efforts to ensure he is a reasonable guy that could put out the fire of Latin America, acting as a fireman to explosive leaders like Chavez and Morales.
Lula is the leader of a Gramscian revolution - The Dark Side
While he keeps his mask as good guy to Europe and US, he spread his claws to Brazil and influence other countries in LA to guarantee that his comrades from the "foro"
- Stay in power in the countries that are on their hands
- Reach the power in the countries that they are on the opposition (democratic) hands
I know that many would like the first to be the real, perhaps because this nightmare would be bleaker enough to bear, or just because they believe communism is dead, or even just by a process of wishfull thinking (magical thinking?). But is not.
The real Lula - or someone that is known as Lula - is a character created by former revolutionaries in Brazil.
Luis Inacio (before he changed his name to his nickname "Lula"- that means "squid" in portuguese) was an ordinary mechanical worker jumped to the leadership of one of the biggest union trade of Brazil in the middle of seventies. He lead the greatest strike in the car assemblers industry during the military regime. He became famous. But that time he was still capitalist, even facing the military regime.
Well, in 1979, the "evil" military released a wide amnesty resolution that forgave all crimes perpretraded by activists and terrorists and even the military that exceeded their actions against them, so thousand of Brazilian emigrés returned to the country. Here they knew the power of Luis Inacio. He has all the features of a leftist leader to complete the work that was left behind in the sixties: popularity and charisma.
The communist revolution in the sixties did not have any popular support because it was fought by students, intellectuals and "catholic" left (theology of liberation). That lesson was learned. They needed a real worker to get the support from the masses and Luis Inacio was perfect to the role.
Luís Inacio was adopted by these revolution veterans, that fed him with ideology. So they gave birth to "Lula", just like other revolutionary legend in Brazil, Chico Mendes that was created by the same way in the eighties.
The fact is that Lula enjoyed so much the character that he never unmasked himself again. The creature now moved on his own feet.
To become the creator of PT's party in the eighties , the candidate in the first free president election in Brazil and the creator of Foro de Sao Paulo in the nineties were just developments of the same plot/acting plan.
Now Lula changes his behavior from good guy / bad guy everytime he wants to hide his real intentions.
With Chavez (a friend and a comrade from the Foro): he must guarantee the he is going to be elected. Pure and simple. It is good for the Foro, not for Brazil. He must stop Rosales. Nothing to do with money!! He is saving a comrade!!
With Evo (other from the Foro) he even went further: he backed Eve when he said is going "nationalise". He said Evo will not do it, it was just campaign talk. Evo did it, invaded our machinery in Bolivia and Lula did not move an eyebrow.
But Garcia is not from the "Foro". He is just a loser. In fact. A person that could win even with all Foro Boys against him, that won Humala that was backed by Lula and Chavez could not acted as he did: just after the election he declared an open support for the re-election of Lula. This guy is nuts. He could join Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe, but not. He preferred to run for the arms of the "squid".
To be final: I cannot bear the silly talk about "progressive" left. As one of Ludwig Von Mises pointed out in his famous work "Middle of the road policies leads to Socialism" : these "progressive" guys are nothing that the old lefties in capitalist disguise. They still believe that capitalism is a system that "hurts the vital interests of the immense majority of people for the sole benefit of a small minority of rugged indivifualists". That's all they believe.
The last Lula's surprise-not-so-surprise-for-those-who-knows-who-he-really-is is that he will follow Chavez footsteps: he is going to change the constitution to run again for president!!!
Garcia is a fool.
Lula is not a solution.
Lula is not a good guy.
If there's a character that fits perfectly on Lula is not the "good guy" model. It's Goethe's "Faust" .
That's why I don't believe in a near future for Latin America. The only glimpse seems to be Rosales.
Atreve-te Venezuela!
El punto culminante del debate del viernes fue la declaración de Lula respecto a que ningún gobierno anterior investigó tan a fondo o estaba tan bien informado sobre los crímenes de corrupción como el suyo. ¿Acaso no es justamente maravilloso que el más informado de los presidentes nada sabía de los crímenes cometidos por cinco de sus propios ministros? ¿No es una delicia que un gobierno que lo percibe todo sobre la delincuencia esparcida en el país entero, ignore lo que pasa en el Palacio de Planalto?