The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvacame out this Thursday in defense of his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, investigated for alleged irregularities in the expenses of his presidential campaign, and recalled that a country “cannot give up due process of law”.
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“As someone who has been a victim of all types of political persecution, I express my solidarity with President @petrogustavo,” Lula said on his social networks.
The top leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) said that “due legal process cannot be renounced,” especially “when what is at stake is the will of the people expressed democratically through the ballot box.”
As someone who has never been a victim of all types of political persecution, I express my solidarity with the president @petrogustavo. The due legal process cannot be opened, even more so when what is in progress is the vote to express democratically the ballot boxes. Lembro…
— Lula (@LulaOficial) October 10, 2024
In this context, Lula, a close ally of Petro within the Latin American leftist camp, recalled the impeachment trial that culminated in the removal of the then Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, in 2016, an episode that Lula himself and his party often describe as a “coup.” “.
At a time when a multitude of corruption cases were emerging in practically all political parties, Congress deposed Rousseff for a series of alleged fiscal irregularities in the budgets, charges that the Justice Department filed years later.
Rousseff was replaced in office by her vice president, Michel Temer, a veteran conservative politician who, after rising to power, launched a broad agenda of liberal economic reforms.
“I remember that, in 2016, President Dilma was the victim of an impeachment process without legal basis and that was the beginning of a turbulent and traumatic period in the history of Brazil,” Lula emphasized in his message.
The National Electoral Council of Colombia opened an investigation and filed charges against Petro and members of his team for allegedly violating the spending limits established in his presidential campaign, in 2022, and resorting to prohibited sources that did not declare.
Petro assured that the decision of the electoral body is “the first step of a coup d’état” against him, and appealed to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDC) considering that it violates the result of the elections that elected him president.
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