On a visit to Cape Verde, the president said that the way Brazil has to pay for years of slavery is through the educational training of African citizens
The president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Wednesday (July 19, 2023) that the debt Brazil owes to Africa due to more than 3 centuries of slavery in the country must be paid by offering educational training to African students. In his 1st visit to the continent since assuming the Presidency of the Republic for the 3rd time, Lula also said that the country has “deep gratitude” for what was produced by enslaved people in the period.
“We are deeply grateful to the African continent for everything that was produced during 350 years of slavery in our country. The form of payment that a country like Brazil can make [trecho da transmissão ao vivo interrompido] it is the possibility of training people so that they have specialization in the various areas that the African continent needs, for the possibility of industrialization and agriculture”, he said.
Lula made a brief statement in Praia, capital of Cape Verde, after having met with the country’s president, José Maria Neves. The Brazilian Chief Executive made a stopover on his return to Brazil, after having participated for 2 days in the 3rd Summit between the European Union and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), held in Brussels, Belgium.
The stopover is mandatory because the presidential plane does not have sufficient flight range and needs to stop for refueling. Lula and the first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, want to exchange the aircraft for one with greater flight capacity and are considering buying a new plane.
Alongside the president of Cape Verde, Lula also said he wanted to resume “good and productive” Brazil’s relationship with the African continent and criticized, once again, the management of his predecessor, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
′′ If we didn’t have a denialist government, Brazil could have produced a vaccine against covid, it could have helped the African continent. Unfortunately, we had mismanagement that did not fulfill the essential, which is to take care of the human being”, he said.
Lula also declared that Brazil has returned to democracy under his government and that the people who were involved in the extremist acts of January 8th will be punished. “Brazil wants democracy, breathes democracy, needs democracy, and the world also needs democracy”he said.
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