Lula’s Detention Rattles Brazil as Heat on Rousseff Increases

As soon as police raided the home of former Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and questioned him early Friday, red-shirted activists of his Workers’ Party took to the streets. Fist fights broke out with police as well as with those applauding the detention — a preview of the unrest that likely awaits Brazil and its embattled president.
The second term of President Dilma Rousseff has been overwhelmed by twin crises — an economy crippled by recession and a political establishment under siege by a massive corruption investigation. The probe of Lula, an iconic figure who chose Rousseff as his successor, escalates almost two years of mounting tension.
Rousseff isn’t directly implicated in the latest investigation, which focuses on favors Lula and his family allegedly received from companies involved with Petrobras, the state oil company at the heart of the corruption probe. But she is under intense attack for a range of reasons and Lula remains the soul of her Workers’ Party, known as the PT. His questioning raises the temperature a week before pro-impeachment protests scheduled for March 13.

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