Who are the people who went up the ramp and handed the presidential sash to Lula?

After going up the ramp of the Planalto Palace this Sunday afternoon (1/1), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) received the presidential sash in a symbolic manner “from the hands of the Brazilian people”, as was officially narrated at the inauguration ceremony. The President of the Republic cried right after receiving the banner.

Lula went up the ramp accompanied by people who represent Brazilian diversity, in addition to the dog Resistência, belonging to Lula and his wife, Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja,

An unusual point of the ceremony was the fact that the presidential sash was not transmitted by the incumbent president, as is customary. Jair Bolsonaro (PL) did not publicly recognize Lula’s victory and traveled to the United States shortly before the transfer of office.

The solution found by the organization of the ceremony, led by Janja, was for the group of people to assume this role.

The president went up the ramp flanked by these eight representatives, such as the Kayapó chief Raoni Metuktire, a Brazilian indigenous leader, the collector Aline Sousa and the black boy Francisco, 10 years old.

Citizens who accompanied the PT candidate passed the sash from hand to hand, until the object reached the 33-year-old collector, who placed the piece on Lula. Aline Sousa has been collecting waste for recycling since she was 14 and is the third generation of waste pickers in her family.

The boy Francisco lives in Itaquera, on the outskirts of the east zone of São Paulo, and is from Corinthians — just like Lula. In 2022, he took first place in the Campeonato Aquatica Paulista (1st region).

In 2019, he was in Curitiba to say “Good morning, President Lula” when the petista was arrested at the Federal Police Superintendence. The first time he saw the president was in 2019, in a game promoted by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) between “Amigos do Lula” and “Amigos do Chico Buarque”. The boy is the son of a social worker and a lawyer who work in social causes.

After watching a film about the life of President Lula, Francisco is said to have said that he too can become president. The information was released by the press office of the new government.

Beside them, there was also Ivan Baron, representing Brazilians with disabilities. He suffered cerebral palsy at the age of 3 due to viral meningitis and became a reference in the anti-capacity struggle (against discrimination on grounds of disability).

Weslley Rodrigues Rocha, 36 years old, has been working as a metallurgist in the ABC region, in Greater São Paulo, since he was 18 years old.

Kayapó Raoni Metuktire is one of the best-known indigenous leaders in Brazil, an activist in the struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples. According to a website maintained by the French NGO Planète Amazone, Raoni’s longtime partner, he was born around 1932 in the village of Krajmopyjakare, in northeastern Mato Grosso.

At the time, the Kayapó people (self-styled Mebêngôkre) were nomadic and had no regular contact with the outside world. In 1958, the indigenous man accompanied an expedition to demarcate the geographic center of Brazil, on the banks of the Xingu River, in whose basin the Kayapó live to this day. The country was then presided over by Juscelino Kubitschek, who was with Raoni in 1950.

In 1964, the cacique met King Leopold 3rd of Belgium, who visited Brazil 13 years after leaving the throne. He was the first of several foreign leaders with whom he had contact, a list that includes two popes — John Paul II and Francis — and three presidents of France: François Mitterrand (1981-1995), Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) and the current president , Emmanuel Macron.

Raoni’s international fame was catapulted by an encounter with Belgian filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux. The two met in 1973 and, years later, the filmmaker recorded a documentary about the indigenous man and his people.

Critically acclaimed, the film raoni had its English version narrated by the American actor Marlon Brando. It was nominated for an Oscar and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. In Brazil, it won the award for best film in Gramado. BBC News Brasil interviewed him in 2019.

In the group that accompanied Lula were also cook Jucimara Fausto, professor Murilo Jesus and craftsman Flavio Pereira.

The female dog Resistencia, on the other hand, was initially carried by Janja on her lap and then placed on the ground, being guided at times by President Lula.