Leonardo Péricles joins Brazil presidential race under União Popular

Brazil’s political party União Popular (“Popular Union”) on Sunday (Jul 24) announced Leonardo Pericles as its presidential candidate, with dentist Samara Martins as his running mate.

At the party’s convention, held in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Péricles advocated the consolidation of a great popular front to work on the elections. “The chief policy will be built by the people,” he said in his address. “As advocates of democratic liberties, we call on the people to begin a new series of activities on the streets,” he went on to say.

In his speech, Péricles also stressed that all Brazilians must be able to democratically choose who should lead the nation over the next four years.

Bio

Leonardo Péricles is the only black man on the presidential race. Born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, he is a certified electrician and a machinery repairman. Péricles became involved in politics as part of student movements in the early 2000s. Years later, he joined the Movimento de Luta nos Bairros, Vilas e Favelas (“Movement for the Struggle of Districts, Neighborhoods, and Favelas”), or MLB. In 2008, he ran for a seat on the Belo Horizonte city council, but was not elected. In the last municipal elections, in 2020, he ran for vice-mayor of Belo Horizonte under União Popular, on the ticket as Áurea Carolina from the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL). They came fourth, with 103,115 votes.

Samara Martins was also born in Belo Horizonte and is a dentist in Brazil’s national public health care network SUS. Martins lives in the outskirts of Natal and is the national vice-president of Unidade Popular pelo Socialismo (“Popular Unity for Socialism”) and a member of MLB and the Movimento de Mulheres Olga Benario (“Olga Benario Women’s Movement”). She started her work as an activist in the Movimento Estudantil Secundarista and served as women’s director of national students’ union UNE. In 2020, she ran for a chair as a councilwoman in Natal.