Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as Brazil’s president, delivering a searing indictment of far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro and vowing a drastic change of course to rescue what he called a ruined nation.

In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s biggest country on Sunday (local time), the leftist said democracy was the true winner of the October presidential vote, when he ousted Mr Bolsonaro in the most fraught election for a generation.

Mr Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for the US on Friday after refusing to concede defeat, rattled the cages of Brazil’s young democracy with baseless claims of electoral weaknesses that birthed a violent movement of election deniers.

“Democracy was the great victor in this election, overcoming … the most violent threats to freedom to vote, and the most abject campaign of lies and hate plotted to manipulate and embarrass the electorate,” Lula told lawmakers.

He delivered a veiled threat to Mr Bolsonaro, who faces mounting legal risks for his anti-democratic rhetoric and his handling of the pandemic now that he no longer has presidential immunity.

“We do not carry any spirit of revenge against those who tried to subjugate the nation to their personal and ideological designs, but we will guarantee the rule of law,” Lula said, without mentioning his predecessor by name. “Those who erred will answer for their errors.”

He also accused Mr Bolsonaro’s administration of committing “genocide” by failing to respond properly to the COVID-19 virus that killed more than 680,000 Brazilians.

“The responsibilities for this genocide must be investigated and must not go unpunished,” he said.

Lula’s plans for government provided a stark contrast to Mr Bolsonaro’s four years in office, which were characterised by backsliding on environmental protections in the Amazon rainforest, looser gun laws and weaker protections for Indigenous peoples and minorities.

Lula said he wants to turn Brazil, one of the world’s top food producers, into a green superpower.

He reinforced his commitment to ending deforestation in the Amazon, which surged to a 15-year high under Mr Bolsonaro, while also enlisting its Indigenous inhabitants to help protect the forest.

He said he will revoke dozens of Mr Bolsonaro’s executive orders loosening firearms laws, which prompted a sharp rise in gun ownership.

“Brazil does not want more weapons, it wants peace and security for its people,” he said.

Lula’s inauguration took place amid heightened security.

Some of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters have protested that the election was stolen and called for a military coup to stop Lula returning to office in a climate of vandalism and violence.

On Christmas Eve, a Mr Bolsonaro supporter was arrested for making a bomb that was discovered on a truck laden with aviation fuel at the entrance to Brasilia airport, and confessed he was seeking to sow chaos to provoke a military intervention.

Mr Bolsonaro has seen his support among many former allies evaporate due to the anti-democratic protests.

After the swearing-in, Lula left Congress in an open-top Rolls-Royce. He then arrived at the Planalto palace, where he walked up its ramp with a diverse group that included his wife, Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapó tribe, a young black boy and a disabled man.

Lula was then handed the presidential sash – a hugely symbolic act in Brazil that Mr Bolsonaro had repeatedly said he would never do – by a black woman.

Lula’s election victory marked a stunning political comeback, winning an unprecedented third presidential term after a hiatus that saw him spend a year and a half behind bars on corruption convictions that were later overturned.

-AAP

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