Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's polarizing election frontrunner and leftist icon, was negotiating his surrender after dramatically skipping a first deadline today to start his 12-year prison sentence for corruption.
Holed up with thousands of cheering supporters in the metalworkers' union building in his hometown of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, the 72-year-old let the 5:00 pm (2000 GMT) deadline pass without public comment.
This raised the temperature in the standoff between the leftist former two-term president and Judge Sergio Moro, who heads the mammoth "Car Wash" anti-graft probe and who ordered Lula's imprisonment.
Given that Lula was effectively surrounded by a human shield, it was clear that a forcible arrest attempt would trigger violence.
But authorities took pains to reduce tensions, downplaying Lula's defiance and stressing that he was not considered a fugitive -- something that would trigger a preventative arrest warrant.
"Lula did not comply with a judicial order," a spokesman for Moro told AFP, "but everyone knows where he is. He's not hiding or on the run."
"Nothing is over yet."
"Not only Lula should be locked up, but all the corrupt, a complete cleaning."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content