Lula da Silva insists that Nicolás Maduro prove that he won the elections in Venezuela: ‘his behavior is disappointing’

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reiterated this Friday that does not recognize the result of the elections in Venezuela and insisted that his counterpart Nicolás Maduro “prove” that he won those elections, denounced as fraudulent.

“I think Maduro’s behavior is disappointing,” Lula said in an interview with radio station Difusora, in which he noted that “in Brazil, democracy was learned with much suffering,” although he clarified that “when people are extremists, they don’t accept it.”

He alluded to the attitude of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he defeated in the 2022 elections, and said that The right-wing leader “spent a month crying at home, not accepting defeat and thinking about what to do” to prevent him from assuming power.

“I think that Maduro, as president, should prove that he was the favorite of the Venezuelan people, but he does not do it,” Lula lamented.

I think that Maduro, as president, should prove that he was the favorite of the Venezuelan people, but he does not do it.

The leftist leader explained that, together with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, they insist on promoting dialogue between Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition, which claims victory in the elections of July 28 and has the support of a large part of the international community.

In that context, he added that Brazil “will not break relations” with Venezuela and will insist on a negotiated solution, although it also clarified that it does not support “unilateral sanctions” against that country, because that “harms the people, not Maduro.”.

Maduro’s victory was declared by the National Electoral College (CNE) and later ratified in a controversial process that Maduro himself promoted before the Supreme Court, although the detailed voting records table by table have not yet been presented.

Lula, along with Petro and to a lesser extent with the Mexican president, Andrés López Obrador, have attempted mediation and insist on the publication of these minutes, which the opposition distributed on an internet page with a result largely favorable to its candi
date, Edmundo González Urrutia.

Following the publication of these documents, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal investigation and issued an arrest warrant against González Urrutia, accusing him of “usurpation of functions”, “forgery of public documents”, “inciting disobedience”, “conspiracy”, “sabotage to damage systems” and “association to commit crimes”.

Thirty former leaders ask the ICC for the ‘immediate arrest’ of Maduro

Some thirty former Ibero-American presidents on Friday asked the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “the immediate arrest and detention” of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his deputy Diosdado Cabello and the entire chain of command in the country.

“For the first time, 31 former presidents, former heads of state of Latin America and Spain, sign a document (…) calling for the immediate capture and detention of Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and the entire chain of command in Venezuela,” former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana told EFE, who on behalf of the signatories presented a six-page legal report to the Court’s Prosecutor’s Office.

Among the signatories are also the Spanish Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy; as well as the Colombians Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque; the Argentine Mauricio Macri; the Mexican Vicente Fox or the Bolivian Carlos Mesa.

“It is important to note that in Spain Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy signed it. The only former president who did not sign it is (José Luís Rodríguez) Zapatero,” Pastrana said after meeting with prosecutor Karim Khan’s team at the ICC headquarters.

The signatories, who are part of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA-Democrática), denounced in their legal report “widespread and systematic violations of human rights,” including “crimes against humanity” by the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, which they accuse of “state terrorism.”