PSB criticizes Venezuelan dictatorship and reception of Maduro – 05/30/2023 – Panel

The national president of the PSB, Carlos Siqueira, says that the “narrative” existing today in Venezuela is just one: it is a dictatorship.

The term was used at the meeting that took place on Monday (29) between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, in the sense that the accusations against the authoritarianism of the country would be distorted.

Siqueira, who heads the party of the vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and two ministers: Flávio Dino (Justice) and Márcio França (Ports and Airports), disagrees with Lula’s assessment.

“It’s not about the narrative, it’s about Venezuela not being a democracy,” he says.

A historic ally of Lula, the PSB has had a very different position from the PT on Venezuela for some time. Siqueira says that the large number of Venezuelans who have left the country shows the failure of the local government.

“In addition to the lack of democracy, the worst business card of this regime in Venezuela are the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans begging at traffic lights in Brazil. That is the fact”, says Siqueira,

In 2019, following a report by the then UN commission on human rights, Michelle Bachelet, on violations by the regime, the socialists approved a resolution critical of Maduro in their national directory and withdrew from the Foro de São Paulo, a group of Latin American parties of left that includes the PT and the legend of the Venezuelan dictator.

Siqueira told the Panel that he understands the need for Brazil to maintain diplomatic and commercial relations with Venezuela. But he disagrees with the special treatment given by Lula to Maduro on the eve of the summit of South American countries. “It didn’t have to go that far,” he said.

He declined to comment on the PT’s pro-Maduro stance. “I’m talking about the PSB, which is always against dictatorships, not about the PT”. The party also recently approved a motion against another leftist dictatorship in Latin America, that of Nicaragua.

According to Siqueira, condemning an authoritarian regime is something that is in the PSB’s DNA. “Our party was born against anti-democratic left-wing models, against Stalinism, always in defense of freedom,” he said.

That’s why, he says, you can never support a government like Maduro’s. “We cannot imagine Venezuela as democratic. In democracy there are rules, and everyone knows that in Venezuela democratic rules do not exist,” he said.

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