On October 27, 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva became the first candidate from a left-wing party to be elected Brazil's president. Lula's poor, working-class upbringing was also a first for a Brazilian president and made him a rarity in Latin America's political history. His personal victory after three failed attempts and the ascendancy of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) to the presidency seemed to many observers the electorate's repudiation of the free-market policies implemented by his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995 to 2002). Cardoso had initiated and overseen eight years of newfound price stability and expanded consumption, but in the 2002 election the increase in unemployment and deindustrialization that had occurred during his two terms seemed to weigh more heavily on voters' minds. Opponents of the incumbent party received 76% of the presidential vote.

The election in Latin America's largest country of a left-leaning president seemed the high point of a regionwide trend that began during the recessionary “lost half-decade” of 1998 to 2002.