The president participates in the 46th Conference of the Caribbean Community; Afterwards, he will go to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where he will have a bilateral with Nicolás Maduro
The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) embarks this Wednesday (28.Feb.2024) for Guyana, where he will participate in the 46th Conference of heads of State of Caricom (Caribbean Community), where he will talk to leaders about food security and climate change.
Afterwards, he heads to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where he participates in the Celac conference. It is there where Lula must address Guyana's conflict with Venezuela and meet with President Nicolás Maduro.
Lula is expected to meet with the presidents of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, and Suriname, Chan Santokhi, at 6 pm (Brasília time). The first country has emerged as an important trading partner for Brazil, especially due to the discovery of large oil and gas reserves.
When talking about climate change with Caribbean countries, which can be widely affected by environmental disasters and rising sea levels, Lula wants to attract supporters already with an eye on having practical results in COP30in Belém, next year.
This will be the 2nd time that Lula participates in Caricom. In 2005, he attended the group's 16th conference, in Paramaribo, Suriname. In 2010, the 1st Brazil-Caricom Summit took place in Brasília, which brought together a significant number of Caribbean leaders.
Celac and Venezuela
On December 14, Maduro and Ali met in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Caribbean, for a meeting brokered by Brazil, Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and Caricom (Caribbean Community). There, a joint declaration was signed in which both committed to resolving the impasse without the use of force.
The dispute between the countries, which has lasted more than a century, is related to the Essequibo region (also called Guyana Essequiba). The site covers 160,000 km² and is administered by Guyana. The area represents 74% of the country's territory, is rich in oil and minerals, and has an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Venezuelan elections should also be on Lula and Maduro's agenda. O Power360 found that Brazil talks to the opposition and the government to ensure a competitive election. It will not, however, comment or interfere in details, such as illegibility by María Corina Machado, Maduro's opponent.
The Brazilian government's idea is that, with clean elections, it would be possible to remove sanctions on Venezuela, improving the continent's environment and commercial relations with the neighboring country.
Lula was silent about the veto of María Corina Machado, leader of Nicolás Maduro's opposition in the Venezuelan elections. Other South American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador, condemned the former deputy's ineligibility. The PT member is a historic ally of the Venezuelan leader.
On January 26, the TSJ (Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela) banned María Corina Machado from holding public office for the next 15 years. With the decision, Corina is prevented from running in the presidential elections that will be held in the 2nd half of 2024, with no set date yet. She won the opposition primary elections in October 2023 to face Maduro.
In October, the United States agreed to ease trade sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector if the country holds free and monitored presidential elections in 2024.
Now, with the announcement of María Corina Machado's ineligibility, the spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, declared that the Venezuelan Supreme Court's decision “contradicts the commitment made by Nicolás Maduro’s representatives to organize fair presidential elections in 2024”.
MATURE
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, 60 years old, heads an autocratic regime with no guarantees of fundamental freedoms. He keeps, for example, people in prison for what he considers “political crimes”.
There are also restrictions described in reports from the OAS (Organization of American States) on “illegitimate appointment” of the National Electoral Council by an illegitimate National Assembly, and of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (of October 2022from November 2022 and from March 2023).
LULA TRIPS
When he returns from his trip, in the early hours of Friday (1st March) to Saturday (2nd March), Lula will have completed 70 days traveling abroad since taking over the Planalto again.
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