In two months of government, Lula already collects nods to dictatorships

Itamaraty did not sign an international declaration supported by 54 countries last Friday (3) condemning recent abuses against human rights in Nicaragua. The omission in positioning against the dictator Daniel Ortega adds to a series of nods that the Lula government has been making at the beginning of its mandate to dictatorships, including Venezuela, Cuba and Iran.

The declaration was signed by members of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations (UN) and condemns the Nicaraguan dictatorship’s decision to deprive victims of political persecution of their Nicaraguan citizenship and political rights. It also asks the authorities to “stop arbitrary arrests and release all political prisoners, including leaders of the Catholic Church”, and expresses concern about “the deterioration of the human rights situation of indigenous peoples and people of African descent in Nicaragua”.

Last year, during the presidential elections, at the request of Lula’s coalition, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) censored a post by People’s Gazette on social networks that mentioned Lula’s support for Ortega. Despite this, the link between the two is well documented.

In 2021, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper the country, Lula defended Latin American dictatorships by comparing their leaders with democratically elected figures from the rest of the world. “Why can Angela Merkel stay in power for 16 years and not Daniel Ortega? Why can Margaret Thatcher stay in power for 12 years, and Chávez not?”, she questioned.

Omission in relation to Ortega occurs shortly after nod to the dictatorship of Iran

Another controversy involving Lula’s relationship with a dictatorship occurred at the end of last week, when the PT government authorized two Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro. The decision has been questioned and treated as a mistake by the United States. As journalist Leonardo Coutinho reports in his column in People’s Gazettethe Iranian regime may be taking advantage of Lula’s return to use Brazil as a springboard to provoke the United States.

Before the authorization, the US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley, even made an appeal for authorization to dock Iranian warships. “These ships have in the past facilitated illicit trade and terrorist activities and have had UN (United Nations) sanctions. Brazil is a sovereign country, but we strongly believe that these ships should not dock anywhere,” she said.

The Iranian regime has a history of good relations with the Latin American left, especially with Venezuela. Former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez and former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even established cooperation for the development of a nuclear program in Venezuela in the late 2010s.

The Lula government received Ahmadinejad in Brazil in 2009; months later, Lula was received in Iran by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who still holds the post.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said that the Lula government’s decision on Iranian warships sends the “wrong” message. “So far, Brazil is the only country in our hemisphere that has accepted a request for docking,” he told the newspaper. The State of S. Paulo.

Senator Ted Cruz, from the Republican party, called for sanctions against Brazil. “The Biden administration is obligated to impose relevant sanctions, re-evaluate Brazil’s cooperation with US counter-terrorism efforts, and re-examine whether Brazil is maintaining effective counter-terrorism measures in its ports. If the government fails to do so, Congress must force them to do so,” Cruz said in a statement.

Lula’s government has strengthened Brazil’s ties with the Venezuelan dictatorship

In the first month of his government, in January, at the 7th Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), Lula defended the strengthening of relations with the dictator Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, and announced that he would resume diplomatic ties with the dictatorship. The relationship with Maduro had been suspended during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), but the PT government has already sent a Brazilian diplomatic mission to Caracas.

“Brazil will restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela. We want it to have an embassy in Brazil and for Brazil to have an embassy in Venezuela. We are going to re-establish the civilized relationship between two autonomous, free and independent states”, stated Lula in January. “The problem of Venezuela we will solve with dialogue, not with blockade. We will solve it with dialogue and not with the threat of occupation. We will solve it with dialogue, not with personal offenses, “she added. Fulfilling this promise, the Lula government authorized in January the appointment of the new Venezuelan ambassador to Brazil, Manuel Vadell Aquino, appointed by Maduro.

Lula also criticized former Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaidó, who was recognized by the international democratic community. “I see a lot of people asking Maduro for understanding, and these people forget that they did an abominable thing for democracy, which was to recognize a guy who was not president, who was not elected, which was Guaidó. This citizen spent several months playing the role of president without being president. And I keep asking myself: who is wrong?

In an interview with the newspaper The globe, Guaidó stated that Lula “does a great disservice to democracy by not taking a frontal position in defense of human rights and, consequently, of democracy”. “If the attack on the Brazilian parliament is deplorable, the attack on the Venezuelan Congress by Maduro is also deplorable,” he said. “A president with 24 days of government that minimizes or does not pronounce on the most severe humanitarian crisis ever seen on the continent, worse than in nations that live wars, such as Syria and Ukraine, does not understand Venezuela”, commented the Venezuelan , whose interim government was dissolved by the opposition itself in December 2022.

Excited by the new situation, Maduro recently signaled that he intends to include Venezuela in the group of countries interested in adopting a common currency in South America. “I announce that Venezuela is ready and we support the initiative to create a Latin American and Caribbean currency,” he said. The idea of ​​creating a common South American currency was defended by Lula and Argentine President Alberto Fernández in January.

Lula also had a meeting with the Cuban dictator

On January 24, also at Celac, Lula had a meeting with the Cuban dictator, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The PT even shared a photo on social networks alongside Díaz-Canel and wrote: “Brazil reestablishing its diplomatic relations in the world”.

Lula took advantage of the occasion to propose the end of the economic embargo against Cuba imposed by the United States. “An end to the blockade of Cuba, which has lasted more than 60 years without any need. Cubans don’t want to copy the Brazilian or US model, they want to make their own model. And who has to do with that? So, it has to treat Venezuela and Cuba with great affection and, in what we can help solve their problems, we will help”, he said.

In 2021, in an interview given to the Spanish newspaper the country, Lula relativized the repression of the protests that took place in Havana against the Cuban dictatorship. “These things happen all over the world. The police beat a lot of people, it’s violent,” he said. “You haven’t seen any soldier in Cuba with his knee on a black man’s neck, killing him,” he added, referring to the murder of George Floyd in the US.

After the death of Fidel Castro, in 2016, Lula called him the “greatest of all Latin Americans” and said that the Cuban “was always a voice of struggle and hope”, who animated “dreams of freedom”. He also stated that he maintained “an affectionate and intense relationship with the dictator, based on the search for ways to emancipate our peoples” and said that he felt his death “like the loss of an older brother”.