Taking his first public stance on Nicolás Maduro’s disputed victory in Venezuela’s internationally disputed presidential election on Sunday, Brazilian President Lula da Silva shocked even his allies by declaring that the election process in his neighboring country was normal and that all was calm in Venezuela, even as police used extreme violence against popular protests. Lula said it was the Brazilian press that was fueling the protests of the opposition in Venezuela, which he said if they had evidence of alleged electoral fraud, they should present it to the country’s courts and then make a decision.
“There is nothing serious in Venezuela, nothing scary. I see that the Brazilian press is treating this issue as if it were World War III. The Venezuelan Electoral Court has already recognized Maduro as the winner, but the opposition has not. I consider this a normal phenomenon. The peace process,” Lula da Silva said in an interview with Rede Matogrossense in the state of Mato Grosso, which the president is visiting this Wednesday.
By Tuesday evening, at least 11 protesters had already been killed in a brutal police crackdown on popular protests sparked by the opposition to Nicolás Maduro’s government, which is challenging his re-election and denouncing alleged vote-rigging. The opposition says it has access to 84% of the election reports from all polling stations in Venezuela and that, based on the results they contain, which have not been released by the government, opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won with 70% of the vote.
Lula da Silva’s position stands in stark contrast to that of most South American leaders, including those on the left, who are contesting Maduro’s reelection and decrying that the Caracas executive, which controls the electoral justice system, the common justice system and the press, has rigged the results. Lula, however, remains loyal to his longtime ally and personal friend and appears willing to face the world to defend Nicolás Maduro, as he did early last year when he gave the Venezuelan dictator special treatment during a Latin American summit in Brasilia, prompting protests from several heads of state and government in the region.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha (Correspondent in Brazil)
Source: CM Jornal
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