Foro de São Paulo meets under artillery from the right – 06/28/2023 – Politics

After three years without holding its annual event because of the pandemic, the Foro de São Paulo meets again this Thursday (29), in Brasília, with the presence of President Lula (PT), one of the founders of the entity in nineteen ninety.

The 26th meeting of the congregation of leftist parties and movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, held until Sunday (2), has been giving ammunition to the Bolsonarist right and fueling questions about alignment with dictatorships in the region – especially after the visit of the Venezuelan dictator , Nicolas Maduro, to Brazil.

With the guideline that the definition of its political regime is up to each country and people, the forum, which is positioned against imperialism and neoliberalism, avoids dealing with the restriction of opponents and violations of human rights in countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua .

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) himself touched on the subject on Friday (23), during a PL event in Porto Alegre, when commenting on the action that could make him ineligible. “The other guy [Lula]last year, met with the cream of the PCC in Complexo do Alemão, in Rio, and will meet with the cream of the Foro de São Paulo”, he said.

Federal deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP) went to the Federal Public Ministry to try to prevent the forum meeting from taking place. “It is unacceptable for our country to accept representatives who violate human rights and are investigated at the UN. […] We have taken steps to try and stop this aberration in our country,” he tweeted.

Asked about collusion with left-wing dictatorships, members of the forum avoided criticizing the authoritarianism of allied countries and argued that the organization values ​​mediation and the construction of dialogue, rejecting interference in the 28 member countries.

In addition, the forum does not take a position on what is not a consensus among the approximately 130 parties and entities that compose it – including nationalists, socialists and communists.

According to the group’s leaders, however, the forum is committed to democracy and all its members defend that the political dispute should take place through elections – and not revolutions.

In Brazil, PT, PC do B and PCB are the parties that make up the forum. With a criticism of Maduro’s authoritarianism, the PSB decided to leave the forum in 2019.

In an interview with the press, the executive secretary of the Foro de São Paulo, Mônica Valente (PT), said on Friday that the entity was born with the strategy of “political dispute in society, which implies the debate of ideas ,” as an alternative to methods of insurrection.

“Our countries in Latin America and the Caribbean all have elections, even if they are not always elections and political systems with which everyone identifies”, she replied when asked about the defense of democracy and the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega.

“We are very careful about not interfering in the internal issues of countries, not only in Nicaragua, but in any other topic or country. The São Paulo Forum seeks to deeply respect the choices that people make. We really believe that the people themselves, through their struggles, are perfecting the democratic systems of their respective countries”, he added.

The 26th meeting also takes place in a context of concern on the left with fake news. The version that the Foro de São Paulo intends to implant leftist dictatorships in the region is attributed by PT members to Olavo de Carvalho, writer guru of Bolsonarism who died in January 2022.

The program includes a seminar on “communication and social networks” on Saturday (1st).

“We don’t think that holding the forum will exacerbate or stop exacerbating the polarization in Brazil. What interests us is having an approximation with what the São Paulo Forum truly is, its debates, its participants, its ideas. We hope to contribute to that in Brazil the ideas of the Forum of São Paulo are disseminated as they are”, says Valente.

“Certainly the realization of the forum will be explored [politicamente]”, says sociologist Ana Maria Prestes (PC do B), who participates in the organization. “This is positive because it shows the relevance of the forum. What we can do is hope that it’s a healthy debate,” she adds.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) is another politician who has been criticizing the event on his social networks. “We have a ‘government’ that condones dictatorships! Lula will bring together bloodthirsty dictators, like Ortega and Maduro, from the São Paulo Forum on the 29th, in Brasilia. And you’re swearing that it was for democracy, right?”, he published.

“The Forum of SP does not exist and it is democratically forbidden to talk about this subject”, commented his brother Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicans).

It is not expected that other heads of state will attend the meeting, but the parties of Ortega and Maduro are part of the forum.

The forum decided to host the meeting in Brasília after Lula’s election last year, as a way of honoring him. The main theme of the event, regional integration, is in line with the PT’s foreign policy agenda, which brought together 11 leaders of South American countries in Brasília last month.

On the occasion, alongside Maduro, he stated that the accusations of lack of democracy in Venezuela are nothing more than a narrative.

In addition to regional integration, forum organizers say that the discussions will focus on development policies and the environmental preservation agenda for the Amazon.

The event will have foreign guests, such as the Socialist Democrats of America, Senator Bernie Sanders’ group within the US Democratic Party, and the European Left Party, which is part of the European Parliament.

On the opening day, at 7 pm, there will be a tribute to Marco Aurélio Garcia, Lula’s former international adviser, who died in 2017. He was one of the group’s creators. On Saturday (1st), there will be a PT get-together party.