Brazil: Lula Takes Shot at Jair Bolsonaro in 100th Day as President

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has just reached the first 100 days of his third term as Brazil's president on Monday, and he used this occasion to take aim at Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula has been trying to reinstate his social policies and also undo several of his predecessor's policies within the first 100 days of his latest term in office. He actually hit the ground running, but Bolsonaro pulled a Donald Trump as his supporters tried their own version of January 6 Capitol insurrection, which is called the January 8 Riot.

This complicated things for the new administration and even prompted Lula to swap insurrection stories with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, during a visit to Washington, D.C. earlier this year.

ABC News pointed out that the act of trying to quell political unrest and staving off potential coups have since overshadowed his administration's social policies as the Brazilian president tries to battle poverty, deforestation, climate change, and many other challenges his country is facing.

He had been trying to bring back many of his social programs, such as the cash-conditional Family Grant welfare program, the My House, My Life housing program, and the More Doctors initiative to expand medical care. However, his rivalry with Bolsonaro is still very much fresh in his mind.

Lula blamed Bolsonaro for the challenges facing his new government, which ran on the slogan of "reconstruction."

In a ceremony at Brazil's presidential palace on Monday, the president aimed at his predecessor and stated, "I am not used to talking about the first 100 days of the administration, but I think it is important to remind you that, in 2003 I took over from a democratic president, which did not happen now."

More Brazilians Hungry After Jair Bolsonaro

During his tenure in office, Jair Bolsonaro had been undoing many of the social programs that previous administrations have been doing.

Last year, while he was still president, more people in Brazil went hungry under his administration, placing the country on the World Food Program's Hunger Map.

Over 33 million Brazilians went hungry last year, and Lula is trying to reverse the effects of Bolsonaro's actions by relaunching the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security, which Bolsonaro abolished, according to Al Jazeera News.

Lula Still Lacks Support From Congress

According to the Associated Press, Lula might be dealing with some legislative problems right now as he still lacks congressional support to pass legislation. This means that his government might struggle to get some of his projects approved.

Lula also has some major challenges on the economic front, as he needs to fund social investments and ensure job creation, as well as have the economy grow.

However, he does have some wins in his first 100 days as he kept his promise to the indigenous Yanomami people as the government sent a humanitarian operation to rescue them from disease and malnutrition in the Amazon. He also cleaned up the military, getting rid of pro-Bolsonaro hardliners and having his new commanders provide food and medical supplies to impoverished areas. His administration also destroyed illegal gold mining camps that lay waste to the rivers and forest and expelled miners from the Indigenous territory.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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