2023-05-30 05:01:00
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvareceived this Monday his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduroy criticized the sanctions imposed on that country in recent years, although he clarified that it will depend on him whether Venezuela has “free” elections in 2024. Maduro arrived in Brasilia in the prelude to a South American summit called by Lulawho received him at the Planalto presidential palace for an appointment in which both celebrated the return of the bilateral relationship, suspended since 2019 by decision of the government headed by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.
“That Venezuela be sovereign again”
At a press conference, Maduro said that his country has been the object in recent years of an “ideological siege” mounted by the global far-right, but he assured that “it has resisted” and is ready to work with Brazil in the construction of a new regional cooperation. . “We cannot allow intolerant, exclusive, extremist ideologies to prevail. On this basis, it will never be possible to build the union in the necessary diversity of our America, the giant dream of the Liberator Simón Bolívar,” the Venezuelan president stated.
Lula described what has been Maduro’s first visit to Brazil since 2015 as “historic”, maintained that he was elected president of Venezuela “by the people” and was willing to resume relations at all levels. He also criticized the countries that, at the time, recognized the former opposition deputy as president of Venezuela Juan Guaido and said that little had helped to improve the lives of Venezuelans.
“I told the Europeans that I did not understand that a continent that exercises democracy as fully as Europe could support the idea that an impostor was the president,” Lula remarked in reference to Guaidó, adding: “I hope that never again in the history of Brazil we have to break a relationship out of ignorance”.
However, the Brazilian president also warned Maduro that the holding of free elections in Venezuela, scheduled for 2024, will depend on him. “It is in your hands that Venezuela makes its own narrative and returns to being a sovereign country, where only its people, through a free vote, say who should govern. And then our adversaries are going to have to apologize for the havoc they have caused,” he said. Lula.
Recover the energetic bond
One of the most concrete issues discussed at the meeting was the possible resumption of the electrical interconnection between Venezuela and Brazil, also suspended four years ago, when Bolsonaro put the relations in the freezer. “We want to recover the energy relationship with Venezuela,” Lula said, referring to transmission lines that carried electricity from Venezuela’s Guri dam to the northern Brazilian state of Roraima.
According to Lula, “Roraima is the only state outside the national electrical system,” and due to the political decisions that suspended relations with Venezuela, “it works based on thermoelectric plants, which are much more expensive.” Maduro guaranteed the cooperation of Venezuela and said that it could immediately start sending some “190 megawatts”, although it clarified that a “basic investment of four or five million dollars would be necessary to recover the transmission lines”.
Lula’s government began a thaw policy with Caracas on January 1, which included the trip of special adviser Celso Amorim to the Venezuelan capital to discuss the reopening of embassies and ways to collect the debt that the Venezuelan State has with Brazil. an issue that had ceased to be addressed with the break in relations made by Bolsonaro.
Commitment to regional integration
Both Lula and Maduro spoke in favor of resuming the South American integration process, which has been almost interrupted in recent years, as soon as possible. To this end, Lula summoned the presidents of the other eleven countries of the region (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela) for the summit this Tuesday in Brasilia. The only absentee will be the Peruvian president Dina Boluarte, who will be represented by the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola.
Without a pre-established agenda and with a reduced format (only the presidents, their foreign ministers and some advisers will be in the room), the idea of the meeting proposed by Lula is for the countries to frankly discuss common problems. According to Lula, “no (South American) country in 500 years of history managed to become a high-income country,” since all of them “were always dealing with poverty” and none of them “will be able to solve that situation alone.”
On this basis, the president of Brazil defended that the region form a bloc to “negotiate with more power, more strength and more possibility of winning” before third countries or commercial unions. Maduro agreed with Lula on this point and affirmed that Venezuela is ready to participate in the construction of a new “fraternal and supportive” South America.
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