By Leonardo Desideri
(Opinion) The Itamaraty didn’t signal a world declaration supported by 54 international locations final Friday (Mar. 3) condemning current human rights abuses in Nicaragua.
The omission of the place in opposition to dictator Daniel Ortega provides to a collection of nods that the Lula authorities has been making at first of its mandate to dictatorships, together with Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.
The declaration was signed by United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) members.
It condemned the choice of the Nicaraguan dictatorship to deprive victims of political persecution of their Nicaraguan citizenship and political rights.
It additionally requires the authorities to “cease arbitrary detentions and release all political prisoners, including leaders of the Catholic Church,” and states concern over “the deteriorating human rights situation of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants in Nicaragua.”
In 2021, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Lula defended Latin American dictatorships by evaluating their leaders to democratically elected figures from the remainder of the world.
“Why can Angela Merkel stay 16 years in power, and Daniel Ortega can’t? Why can Margaret Thatcher stay 12 years in power, and Chavez not?” he questioned.
ORTEGA’S OMISSION COMES JUST AFTER A NOD TO IRAN’S DICTATORSHIP
Another polemic involving Lula’s relationship with a dictatorship occurred on the finish of final week when the PT authorities licensed two Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro.
The determination has been questioned and handled as a mistake by the United States.
As journalist Leonardo Coutinho reviews in his Gazeta do Povo column, the Iranian regime could also be benefiting from Lula’s return to make use of Brazil as a springboard to impress the United States.
Before the authorization, the US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley, even pleaded that Iran’s warships shouldn’t be allowed to dock.
“These ships, in the past, have facilitated illicit trade and terrorist activities and have already had sanctions from the UN (United Nations). Brazil is a sovereign country, but we strongly believe these ships should not dock anywhere,” she mentioned.
The Iranian regime has a historical past of excellent relations with the Latin American left, particularly Venezuela. Former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad established cooperation on creating a nuclear program in Venezuela within the late 2010s.
The Lula administration obtained Ahmadinejad in Brazil in 2009; months later, Lula was obtained in Iran by the nation’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who stays in workplace as we speak.
A US State Department spokesman mentioned the Lula administration’s determination on Iranian warships sends the “wrong” message.
“So far, Brazil is the only country in our hemisphere that has accepted a berthing request,” he advised the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
Senator Ted Cruz of the Republican get together referred to as for sanctions on Brazil.
“The Biden administration is obligated to impose relevant sanctions, reassess Brazil’s cooperation with US counterterrorism efforts, and re-examine whether Brazil maintains effective counterterrorism measures at its ports. If the government fails, Congress must force them to do so,” Cruz mentioned.
Lula’s authorities has strengthened Brazil’s ties with the Venezuelan dictatorship
In the very first month of his administration.
In January, on the seventh Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Lula defended strengthening relations with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
She introduced that he would resume diplomatic ties with the dictatorship.
The relationship with Maduro had been suspended throughout former president Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) authorities, however the PT authorities has already despatched a Brazilian diplomatic mission to Caracas.
“Brazil is going to reestablish diplomatic relations with Venezuela. We want it to have an embassy in Brazil and Brazil to have an embassy in Venezuela. We will reestablish civilized relations between two autonomous, free, and independent states,” Lula mentioned in January.
“The problem of Venezuela we will solve with dialogue, not a blockade. We will solve it with dialogue, not with the threat of occupation. We will solve it with dialogue, not with personal offenses,” he added.
Fulfilling this promise, Lula’s authorities licensed the nomination of the brand new Venezuelan ambassador to Brazil, Manuel Vadell Aquino, nominated by Maduro in January.
Lula additionally criticized the previous interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, who was acknowledged by the democratic worldwide neighborhood.
“I see many people asking Maduro for understanding, and these people forget that they did a terrible thing for democracy: to recognize a guy who was not elected, Guaidó. This citizen stayed several months exercising the role of the president without being president. And I keep asking myself: who is wrong?” he commented.
In an interview with O Globo newspaper, Guaidó mentioned that Lula “does an incredible disservice to democracy by not taking a entrance place in protection of human rights and democracy.
“If the attack on the Brazilian parliament is deplorable, the attack on the Venezuelan Congress by Maduro is also deplorable,” he mentioned.
“A president with 24 days in office who minimizes or does not speak out about the most severe humanitarian crisis ever seen on the continent, worse than in nations experiencing wars, such as Syria and Ukraine, does not understand Venezuela,” commented the Venezuelan, whose interim authorities was dissolved by the opposition in December 2022.
Emboldened by the brand new scenario, Maduro just lately signaled that he intends to insert Venezuela into the international locations fascinated by adopting a typical foreign money in South America.
“I announce that Venezuela is ready, and we support the initiative to create a Latin American and Caribbean currency,” he mentioned.
In January, Lula and Argentine President Alberto Fernández advocated creating a typical South American foreign money.
LULA ALSO MET WITH THE CUBAN DICTATOR
On January 24, additionally on the CELAC, Lula met with Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Lula even shared a photograph with Díaz-Canel on social networks and wrote: “Brazil reestablishing its diplomatic relations on the earth.
Lula used the event to suggest the top of the financial embargo in opposition to Cuba imposed by the United States.
“Let there be an end to the blockade on Cuba, which has lasted more than 60 years without any need. The Cubans don’t want to copy the Brazilian or United States models; they want to make their own. And who has anything to do with that? So you have to treat Venezuela and Cuba with great affection, and in whatever we can help you solve your problems, we will,” he mentioned.
In a 2021 interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, Lula relativized the repression of protests in Havana in opposition to the Cuban dictatorship. “These things happen all over the world. The police beat many people; they are violent,” he mentioned.
“You haven’t seen any soldier in Cuba with his knee on top of a black man’s neck, killing him,” he added in regards to the homicide of George Floyd within the US.
After Fidel Castro died in 2016, Lula referred to as him “the greatest of all Latin Americans” and mentioned that the Cuban “was always a voice of struggle and hope” who inspired “dreams of freedom.”
He additionally affirmed that he maintained with the dictator “an affectionate and intense relationship, based on the search for paths for the emancipation of our peoples,” and mentioned he felt his dying “like the loss of an older brother.”
With data from Gazeta do Povo