Brazil's far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro has been kicked out of office, as former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat him in the presidential elections.
The left-wing candidate won with 50.9 percent of the votes, and after being banned from running in the last presidential election in 2018 because he was in jail, it is an astonishing comeback.
The new leader was serving a 12-year corruption sentence, but was freed in 2019 after a supreme court ruling which infuriated followers of the far-right Mr Bolsonaro.
Mr Lula has always proclaimed his innocence and argued the case against him was politically motivated.
Lula spent 580 days in jail and said: "They tried to bury me alive and here I am," kicking off his victory speech.
He continued: “We weren’t facing an opponent, or a candidate, we faced the entire state apparatus working against us.
“I’ve been resurrected, because they wanted to bury me alive."
"This country needs peace and unity. This population doesn't want to fight anymore."
The 77-year-old survivor of throat cancer claims to have the energy of a man 40 years younger and is hailing a new start for the country which has had dark populist rule.
Bolsonaro is blamed for mishandling the coronavirus pandemic, which killed more people in Brazil than in any other nation, except the United States.
Lula's candidacy will be his sixth run for the presidency and is a show of his decades-long domination of the Workers' Party, Pedro Doria, a Rio de Janeiro writer, told NPR Radio.
However, lawmakers close to Bolsonaro won a majority in Congress, meaning that Lula will likely face stiff opposition to his policies once they reach higher level.
Lula presided over the country for seven years between 2003 and 2010 and left office as the most popular head of state in Brazilian history.
Joe Biden, the US President, said he was “looking forward to working together [with Lula] to continue the cooperation between our two countries in the months and years ahead".
"I send my congratulations to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections."
As well as rampant Covid-19 under the far-right rule, access to guns has been made easier along with widespread environmental destruction.
The Amazon rainforest has lost more than 40,000 square kilometres under Mr Bolsonaro, which is an area the size of Switzerland and total deforestation for 2021 was the highest in 15 years.
Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, celebrated "a new era in Latin American history."
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulated Mr da Silva on the appointment and said on Twitter that he looks forward to working with Mr da Silva on "growing the global economy".
