Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s journey from a jail cell four years ago to winning the highest office in Brazil for a third time is a political comeback story like few others.
Yet the one-time trade union leader’s success in Sunday’s presidential election, defeating his bitter rival Jair Bolsonaro, is only the latest victory in a lifetime of triumph over adversity, which has made him one of the world’s most famous political names.
Born to tenant farmers in the poor north-east of Brazil, Lula spent his early years in a two-room shack with no electricity or running water before embarking aged seven with his mother and six siblings on a two-week journey south by truck in search of a better life.