Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) defended this Monday the holding of free elections and the alternation of power in Venezuela. The PT, who leads polls of voting intentions for the October presidential election, gave a press conference to foreign journalists in São Paulo.
When asked about the neighboring country, the former president said he would like to wish Venezuela what he wants for Brazil. “May the elections always be freer and that the result be accepted”, he said, also in indirect criticism of the attacks made by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) on the electoral system.
“I advocate alternation of power not only for myself. I wish for Venezuela and for all countries. There is no irreplaceable president. Brazil will treat Venezuela with respect.” The former president was an ally of Hugo Chávez, and the PT’s still close relationship with dictator Nicolás Maduro — as well as figures like Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua — is seen as a windowpane by critics.
Lula, who gave the interview alongside former ministers Aloizio Mercadante and Celso Amorim, also said that he had an extraordinary relationship with Venezuela when he was in power and that he wants the neighboring country “to be as democratic as possible.”
“I did not agree when the entire European Union accepted [Juan] Guaidó as president of Venezuela. He was an imposter, it’s been proven that he was an imposter. I’ve always learned to respect the self-determination of the peoples of a country, I can’t keep getting involved,” said the PT. Brazil, under Bolsonaro, also recognized the self-proclaimed Guaidó as president.
Amorim, who occupied the chancellery when Lula was president, is considered his main adviser for the sector. as he showed the Sheethe has already met with European diplomats to clarify what would be the general lines of diplomacy in a possible new PT government.
In a recent meeting between Lula himself and foreign diplomats, the PT also outlined theses on foreign policy. He said that Bolsonaro has isolated Brazil and, according to one of the participants, seemed to want to convey the message that, once in the Planalto, he intends to press for the BRICS to be a forum to debate ways to overcome the War in Ukraine.
In this Monday’s interview, he cited the conflict in Eastern Europe to defend the creation of a new world governance. According to the former president, it is necessary for more countries to join the UN Security Council and for the United Nations as a whole to be reformed to avoid new wars.
The PT said that he hopes that the war will be over until his eventual inauguration and that, if not, Brazil “will make all the efforts in its power to restore peace”.
