The president of Brazil, hardline socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was greeted by a boisterous crowd of protesters in front of his hotel in New York City on Sunday, hurling insults at the head of state and calling for his arrest.
Lula is in New York to open the United Nations General Assembly’s “high-level debate,” an annual event in which the leaders of the world’s countries gather to address each other on the issues they each consider of most importance. As per post-World War II tradition, Brazil is the first country to speak at the event, followed by the host, the United States.
The socialist, who is currently serving his third term in office, has imposed domestic and foreign policies on his country that have led to Brazil’s worst-ever bilateral relationship with the United States. The administration of President Donald Trump has been vocally critical of Lula’s government and, in particular, the nation’s top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), for its persecution of prominent conservatives in the country. Trump has especially condemned Lula for the spurious legal cases opened against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has faced charges of allegedly staging a coup, undermining democracy, allegedly violating coronavirus protocol, allegedly selling Saudi jewels, and, most recently, “recreational racism.”
In mid-September, the STF condemned Bolsonaro, 70, to serve 27 years in prison and banned him from running for office for another eight years after that, the result of the “coup” case against the former president.
Lula himself faced legal woes after his second term as president, the result of police in Curitiba, Brazil, finding evidence that Lula illicitly used kickbacks from public funds to buy a luxury beachfront property. In 2019, Lula was sentenced to 12 years and 11 months in prison for allegedly using government contractors to renovate the property, a second sentence that raised his total prison time to about 25 years. The leftist-controlled STF ultimately overturned the sentence on procedural grounds and allowed Lula to run for office again, though no new evidence was unearthed exonerating Lula of the charges.
The protesters greeting Lula in New York on Sunday made reference to his convictions, chanting, “Lula, thief, your place is prison.” Footage of the protests published by the Brazilian outlet Metropoles shows a small group of protesters wearing Brazilian sport jerseys – outfits common for Brazilian conservative assemblies – and an even smaller group of supporters holding a banner with the logo of Lula’s leftist Workers’ Party (PT).
The protesters can also be heard calling Lula a “terrorist” and “communist” in Portuguese.
Brazilian media reported that Lula did not interact with journalists, protesters, or the small band of his supporters, instead offering only a small waving gesture. The outlet Poder 360 reported that the group of protesters was initially larger, containing about 20 people, but U.S. Secret Service ordered them to step back for security reasons.
“The group of supporters, with 3 people, was also removed and stood on the opposite side of the sidewalk in front of the residence,” it added.
The scenes recalled a similar greeting that Lula received during his visit for the General Assembly in 2023, the first address to the body during his third term in office and his first visit after winning the controversial 2022 election against Bolsonaro. Many Bolsonaro supporters questioned the integrity of that election after the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the election oversight wing of the STF, banned media and politicians from referring to Lula’s corruption convictions on television, but allowed Lula to personally disparage Bolsonaro as a “pedophile” and “cannibal” in several interviews.
The protesters in 2023 were more acrimonious towards Lula, calling him a “drunkard” and “alcoholic” as well as a “communist” and “bastard.”
Brazilian-Americans and Brazilians in the United States generally have enthusiastically requested President Trump’s support in opposing Lula’s censorship of conservative voices. In one memorable moment in October 2024, President Trump worked at a McDonald’s as part of his presidential campaign. A customer identifying herself as Brazilian told the then-candidate, “please don’t let the United States become Brazil, my native Brazil.”
“We’re going to make it better than ever, ok?” Trump responded.
Trump has kept his promise to challenge Lula. In July, the president signed an executive order declaring Lula’s Brazil a “national security threat,” an unprecedented breakdown in ties between Washington and Brasilia. The executive order imposed a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian goods and specifically sanctioned STF justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has led the charge against conservative ideas through police raids and other aggressive action allegedly targeting “fake news.” Trump argued that the silencing of conservatives has included actions attempting to force American tech and social media companies to silence ideas undesirable to leftists, which directly implicated American citizens.
Lula arrived at the United Nations with a plan to play “antagonist” to Trump, Brazilian outlets reported on Monday. Lula is expected to use his speech to call for more spending on climate change, opposition to nationalism, opposition to Israel’s self-defense operations against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas, and condemnation of tariffs. Neither president, multiple reports have shared, has reached out for an in-person meeting with the other, although they will speak back-to-back on the U.N. stage.
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