Brazilian President Lula da Silva broke protocol during his official trip to Cuba, where he attended the G77+China summit, and to the United States for a meeting in Havana with the island’s former President Raul Castro.
The visit was not part of the president’s strict program and caused a long delay in the departure of the Brazilian delegation from Cuba to the United States, where Lula will speak at the opening of the UN General Assembly.
A friend of Raúl and his late brother Fidel Castro, who ruled Cuba with an iron fist for decades, Lula once again ignored criticism that he was truly attracted to dictators and made a point of visiting the former Cuban president.
The meeting took place this Saturday at Castro’s residence, in an upscale area of Havana, and lasted about 40 minutes, but the delay was much longer since it involved travel there and back.
Meanwhile, dozens of members of the Brazilian delegation (Lula travels only accompanied by a veritable entourage of advisers, guests and security guards) had to wait patiently to board a flight to New York, in the US, where other people, Brazilians and Americans, were responsible for admitting them to the group. had to change the originally planned schedule.
Among those forced to wait in Havana for the end of Lula’s private meeting with the former Cuban dictator were no less than 13 ministers of his government, countless parliamentarians and even the presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies whom Lula had invited on the trip.