President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) criticized this Monday (20) the speech of the elected leader of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who shortly after the elections called for the release of young people arrested in protests in the country.
In 2021, protests in the neighboring country left more than 60 dead, of which at least 59 were civilians, generating a series of accusations of human rights violations by state agents.
The Brazilian chief executive compared the Colombian’s statement to a 2018 statement by Lula, in which PT criticized the detention of 14 and 15-year-olds for stealing cell phones.
“Did you see the speech of the new president of Colombia? ‘Release all the boys in prison, everyone’. Lula is going to release the little boys who killed someone for a cell phone to have a beer,” Bolsonaro said in a conversation with supporters broadcast by a Bolsonarista channel. on the Internet.
The president repeats the tactic adopted when the leaders of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and Chile, Gabriel Boric, both left-wing, were elected. Instead of commenting on the outcome of the election, he made criticisms.
This Monday’s statement recalled two speeches by PT. In the first, Lula said: “I cannot see an increase in the number of people sleeping on the street. I cannot see an increase in the number of young women selling their bodies in exchange for a plate of food. years of robbing and being raped, murdered by the police, sometimes innocent or because he stole a cell phone”.
The other was manipulated and disseminated in Bolsonarist networks. An interview with PT was edited to suggest that Lula defended “having beer together” with cell phone thieves, which did not happen.
In a conversation with supporters this Monday, Bolsonaro also criticized the former president for his statement on the release of the kidnappers of businessman AbÃlio Diniz, in 1989. “Lula said: ‘It was a mistake’. captivity, study that person’s habits, how much they will ask. And you are willing to kill if they don’t pay the ransom”, said the president.
In his victory speech, this Sunday (19), the president-elect of Colombia called for the release of young people in the context of the arrests of protesters in the 2019 and 2021 protests. as thugs just because they had hope, just because they had love. I ask the nation’s attorney general to free our youth,” Petro said.
