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Middle East, but they also appeared more threatening because of Brazil’s and theregion’s economic situation, and the consequent social dislocations and theirpolitical repercussions. This, in turn, led to a significant militarization of US policyin Latin America – although with a focus “narrowly targeted at particularly troublingor urgent situations” 570 – a potential power vacuum in the region that neorealisttheory would predict that Brazil, as a pretender to regional hegemony, howevermuted, would seek to fill.PT entered power on a triumphant wave, with Lula securing 61.3% of the popularvote in a second-round run-off with PSDB candidate José Serra. Da Silva’s election,and the rise to power of the party of the workers, PT, was described as “aparadigmatic change in the social, economic and political panoramas of Brazil”. 571Indeed, it was the first time in Brazil’s history that a party of the Left 572 had beenvoted into power, after a history of reversals in Brazil; and the first time that a rankoutsider from the traditional political elite was elected president. The notedBrazilian sociologist Darcy Ribeiro had noted how Brazilian history comprised acontinuous battle between the elites and the poor, with even the 1964 coup aproduct of elite trepidation over the possible consequences of Quadros andGoulart’s populist policies. 573 While Lula’s victory was resounding, the capacity ofthe Party to give effect to long-held foreign policy principles was limited both bythe institutional handicaps imposed by its comparative weakness in the legislature;initially slow economic growth; an uncertain relationship with the military; as well asthe party’s own weakness in the foreign policymaking domain.Lula’s first term started off in an understated fashion, when considered in the lightof his resounding victory in the second-round run-off presidential vote.570 Peter Hakim, “Is Washington Losing Latin America?”, Foreign Affairs, 85, No.1 (Jan-Feb, 2006): 39.571 Almeida, “A Política Internacional do PT”, 87.572 Lula was not the first leftist President of Brazil, however. The presidency of JoãoGoulart in 1961 was associated with the interests of the left. Yet, he was not voted intopower, and his accession to the presidency after the resignation of his predecessor,Jânio Quadro, mobilised massive opposition from the military, and political quarters. SeeLeslie Bethell, “Chapter 2: Politics in Brazil under the Liberal Republic, 1945-1964”, inThe Cambridge History of Latin America: Volume 9, Brazil since 1930, ed., LeslieBethell, Leslie (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008): 139-140.573 Darcy Ribeiro, The Brazilian People [O Povo Brasileiro]. Translated by GregoryRabassa. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000).This theme has been aleitmotif in Brazilian history and society, also famously dissected in sociologist GilbertoFreyre’s The Masters and the Slaves.226