Lula meets Bernie Sanders and Democrats before meeting with Biden

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President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) met this Friday morning (10) with US Senator Bernie Sanders at the residence where he is staying in Washington.

One of the main leaders of the left in the USA, Bernie was involved with the Brazilian election and led the actions of American congressmen out of respect for democracy in Brazil. He approved in the Senate, at the end of last year, a resolution calling on the White House to break off relations in the event of a coup d’état.

According to Bernie, in the conversation Lula defended “the need to strengthen democratic foundations not only in Brazil, not only in the US, but all over the world, because there is a massive threat of right-wing extremists who are trying to undermine democracy.”

The senator told journalists that it is necessary that “the economies of Latin America and the USA work for workers, not just for billionaires in the 1% [mais ricos].” “Another very important thing is the weather; the future of the Amazon will determine whether we manage to save the planet or not. And the US must do everything it can to stop deforestation and protect the Amazon.”

After the meeting, Lula also receives members of the Democratic Party at the Blair House, a residence opposite the White House that the US government assigns to foreign heads of state. The list of deputies was not disclosed, but it includes Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

While the petista received the American representatives, a group of three people appeared near the house to protest against him, calling him a thief. Two supporters shouted in favor of Lula.

One of the reasons Lula stayed at Blair House and not in a hotel, as he initially wanted, was to avoid protests. The place is surrounded when there are foreign authorities and security is done by the American secret service.

The group of parliamentarians received by Lula has been heavily involved with Brazil since the October election and the coup threats from former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The movement grew even more in January, after the coup attacks on the three Powers while Bolsonaro is in the United States.

The former president has been in Florida since December 30 and has not said when he will return to Brazil, while he is applying for a tourist visa that would entitle him to stay in the country for six months. He still raises baseless suspicions about the Brazilian election in conversations with supporters and speeches.

Last Wednesday, a day before the president’s arrival, three Democratic deputies —David Cicilline, Gregory Meeks and Joaquin Castro— proposed a resolution in the House condemning the January 8 attacks and asking authorities to cooperate to hold accountable people linked to them who were In the USA.

A week earlier, the Senate approved a similar resolution by Democrat Bob Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who asked the Justice Department to hold accountable “any actors based in Florida who may have financed or supported violent crimes” in Brasilia.

Parliamentary pressure for respect for democracy in Brazil has been constant. On January 11, three days after the attacks on the three Powers, a group of congressmen called on the American president, Joe Biden, and asked for an investigation by the FBI, the American federal police.

Lula is going to receive representatives of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest trade union federation in the USA. Politically active, the AFL-CIO played an active role in containing coup demonstrations in the US after the January 6 attacks, when supporters of then-president Donald Trump invaded Congress against the confirmation of Biden’s victory.

Afterwards, Lula goes to the White House to meet with Biden. They are talking privately before an expanded meeting that will include, among others, ministers Mauro Vieira (Foreign Relations), Fernando Haddad (Finance), Marina Silva (Environment) and Anielle Franco (Racial Equality), as well as special advisor Celso Amorim and secretary Marcio Elias Rosa on the Brazilian side.

On the American side will be equivalent ministers, such as the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken; the Treasury, Janet Yellen; Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry; and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

In the morning, Lula gave an interview lasting about half an hour to British-Iranian journalist Christiane Amanpour, from CNN.

Representatives of left-wing groups across the country organized themselves to show support for the PT this Friday afternoon, before he goes to the White House. The activists represent different groups, from Brazilians from Defend Democracy in Brazil to Americans from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Members of the Codepink organization and the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (Answer) coalition also go to the site.

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