The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, on Monday and criticized the sanctions imposed on that country in recent years, although he clarified that it will depend on him whether Venezuela has “free” elections in 2024 “.
(You can read: ‘Lula whitens and supports who is accused of torturing the opposition’: Guaidó)
Maduro arrived in Brasilia on the eve of a South American summit called by Lula, who received him at the Planalto presidential palace. for an appointment in which both celebrated the resumption of the bilateral relationship, suspended since 2019 by decision of the Government headed by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
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At a press conference, Maduro affirmed that his country has been the object of an “ideological” siege mounted by the global extreme right in recent years, but assured that it “has resisted” and is ready to “work” with Brazil “in the construction of a new map of regional cooperation”.
Lula described what has been Maduro’s first visit to Brazil since 2015 as “historic”, maintained that he was elected president of Venezuela by “the people” and said he was willing to resume relations at all levels.
He also criticized the countries that, at the time, recognized the former opposition deputy Juan Guaidó as “president” of Venezuela and said that they had done little to improve the lives of Venezuelans.
“I told the Europeans that I did not understand that a continent that exercised democracy as fully as Europe could support the idea that the impostor was the president,” Lula stressed, alluding to Guaidó.
However, He also warned Maduro that the holding of free elections in Venezuela, scheduled for 2024, will depend on him.
“It is in their power for Venezuela to make its own narrative and to return to being a sovereign country, where only its people, through a free vote, say who should govern. And then our adversaries are going to have to apologize for the havoc what they have done,” Lula said.
a mutual commitment
Both Lula and Maduro spoke in favor of resuming the South American integration process, almost interrupted in recent years, as soon as possible.
To this end, Lula has summoned the presidents of the other eleven countries in the region (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela) for the summit this Tuesday in Brasilia.
According to Lula, “no (South American) country in 500 years of history managed to become a high-income country,” since all of them “were always dealing with poverty” and none of them “will be able to solve that situation alone.”
On this basis, he argued that the region forms “a bloc” to “negotiate with more power, more force and more possibility of winning” before third countries or commercial unions.
Maduro agreed with Lula on this point and affirmed that Venezuela is ready to participate in the “construction” of a new “fraternal and supportive” South America.
The first concrete fruit
One of the most specific bilateral issues discussed at the meeting was the possible resumption of the electrical interconnection between Venezuela and Brazil, also suspended four years ago, when Bolsonaro put relations in the freezer.
“We want to recover the energy relationship with Venezuela,” Lula said, referring to transmission lines that carried electricity from Venezuela’s Guri dam to the northern Brazilian state of Roraima.
According to Lula, “Roraima is the only (Brazilian) state outside the national electrical system”, to which it is not connected, and due to the political decisions that suspended relations with Venezuela “it works based on thermoelectric plants, which are much more expensive”.
Maduro guaranteed the cooperation of Venezuela and said that could immediately start sending some “190 megawatts”, although he clarified that a “basic investment of four or five million dollars would be necessary to recover the transmission lines”.
However, the Venezuelan leader asked for “support” from “Brazilian businessmen” for these investments, without citing, like Lula, the debts of almost 600 million dollars that Venezuela has had for years with Brazilian companies.
Visit Reactions
The foreign minister of Venezuela, Yván Gil, expressed that the meeting between the president of this country, Nicolás Maduro, and the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is a victory.
“Victory for our peoples!” Said the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Twitter, where he shared a video showing both heads of state minutes after appearing before the press after holding a private meeting at the Planalto presidential palace.
Gil assured that the meeting was held in order to “strengthen bilateral relations”, one day before a summit of South American leaders convened by Lula, in which Maduro will participate, “in order to resume cooperation and dialogue in the region”.
However, the main leaders of the opposition to the government of the Brazilian president accused him of “trampling” democracy for having received Maduro with State honors, whom they directly branded as a “dictator”. The criticism was expressed mainly by members of the Liberal Party (PL), the formation led by former President Jair Bolsonaro, which in 2019 broke relations with Venezuela and prohibited the Venezuelan president from setting foot in Brazil.
Who also reacted was Juan Guaidó himself. The Venezuelan opponent, whom more than 50 countries recognized as interim president from 2019 to 2022, affirmed that Lula attacks him to “whiten” the record of the Venezuelan ruler.
“Lula attacks me to avoid the obvious; he launders and supports who is accused of torturing the opposition, terrorism and drug trafficking and for creating the largest displacement crisis on the continent,” he wrote on Twitter.
The opposition leader wondered if apart from the attacks on his person, “he will talk about elections and human rights (human rights) with Maduro.” “The president of Brazil @lulaofical, due to ideological and economic ties, revictimizes the Venezuelan people by denying the dictatorial character of Maduro. He forgets the murdered, the victims, the destruction of the Amazon and the millions of migrants,” he stressed.
EFE
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