I read with interest the report by Reuters on the downfall of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, (‘Lula agrees to surrender to Brazil police after defying order’, The Sunday Times of Malta, April 8).

I am glad to say that the article represents very well what happened. I especially liked the concluding paragraph where it was emphasised that when President Lula ended his second term, he left the country with a booming economy, and – what struck me most – “falling inequality”.  

In truth, I, as your readers, have read and heard a lot about class struggle, but I never thought I would experience it in so close a manner as I have been doing over these past two years or so.

Allow me to give some details:

The Judge, Mr Moro, and the Promoter of Justice, Dr Daganol, when asked if they have proof to sustain their accusations, bluntly answered, over and over again, that they have no proof but that they are convinced that it is so. This is an absurdity that shocked all well-meaning citizens, and responsible opinion leaders.

The present illegitimate government which ousted the democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff through a parliamentary coup, legislated a very revolutionary law dealing with the education and public health systems. It decreed that for the coming 20 years, the budget vote for education and public health cannot increase. It will be so notwithstanding that the level of education and public health, in spite of the progress achieved under the Lula and Dilma governments, is still that of a Third World country. 

Furthermore, according to the experts, the population of Brazil is expected to rise from 200 million to 250 million. As a friend told me, these 50 million new births, as far as the country’s budgets planned by this illegitimate government are concerned, will find themselves as marginalised Brazilian citizens.

This class struggle is the raison d’état for the ousting of President Dilma and the criminalisation of President Lula. One can add the privatisation of the remaining natural resources of the country, as usual, at the price of a banana!

One may ask, where is the well-known Church of Brazil in all this? Unfortunately, for the first time in my 33 years in Brazil, I feel it is practically absent. And I am sad about this! I am hoping that the Bishops Conference that it is now taking place will speak out.