Brazil's biggest corruption trial gets under way

Seven years after a corruption scandal rattled the government of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's Supreme Court begins today a landmark trial that could mar the wildly popular leader's legacy.

Brazilians still don't know the extent of the infamous "mensalão" scandal, an alleged scheme to pay legislators a monthly retainer in exchange for their support in Congress.

If prosecutors get their way, though, they could convict as many as 38 former officials and associates of the ruling Workers' Party, several of whom were senior aides to Lula at the time.

The affair has little bearing on the day-to-day dealings of President Dilma Rousseff, who was hand-picked by Lula to succeed him and won the election with his strong support.

But the trial, expected to last over a month, will be closely watched across Brazil and is the subject of magazine covers, front-page spreads, and heated conversations in living rooms, bars and street corners.

At stake is the lustrous legacy of Lula, Brazil's most popular politician. He was sluggish in his initial response to the scandal, defending some of the accused, but is still beloved after an eight-year administration during which Brazil's economy grew by an annual average greater than 4 percent.

Though re-elected for a second term one year after the scandal toppled trusted deputies, details that may emerge during the trial could cast doubt on Lula's longstanding denials that he knew about alleged payments. They could also impact any plans he harbors to return to the presidency, a remote possibility he has acknowledged should Rousseff decide against seeking re-election in 2014.

Yesterday, citizens in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, spelled "mensalão" in candles along a central avenue. In Brasilia, security guards in black suits and sunglasses lined the perimeter of the colonnaded Supreme Court building.

Corruption is still a major problem in Brazil, from small town councils all the way to the federal Congress, where many lawmakers are experts at back-room deals and often rat each other out to reporters.

Now, the mensalão trial is an opportunity for Brazil's courts to show, if not velocity, at least some resolve and institutional progress.

"It's often said that there is no punishment in Brazil," former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said in a video by his centrist party, the chief opposition to the left-leaning Workers' Party, or PT. "Now we have an important moment, a moment for Brazilian history."

Rousseff herself is quiet about the trial, a convoluted case alleging the use of public funds, and secret Workers' Party finances, to pay for the votes and party causes.

The party denies that the scheme existed, or that party or public funds were ever illicitly spent. The party, and Lula himself, in recent months have been embroiled in a debate over whether the trial should be delayed so it doesn't affect voting in October's municipal elections, important because mayorships are often springboards for federal office.