Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection Sunday, defeating Senator Flávio Bolsonaro , an ally of US President Donald Trump, in a razor-thin runoff election that capped a deeply polarized presidential race.
The historic victory makes the 80-year-old leftist leader the first Brazilian president to be elected to the office four times, after a campaign dominated by concerns over the cost of living, crime and corruption, as well as a broader rightward political shift in Brazil and across Latin America.
It also marks the first time since the return of direct presidential elections in 1989 that a candidate has won the presidency after finishing second in the first round.
Lula's mother was a seamstress and his father was an agriculture worker. Born in 1945, Lula didn't learn to read until age 10 and left school after the fifth grade to work full time. He got involved in politics because he was unhappy with the lack of political representation of the working class.
