2023-05-30 23:40:20
Nicolas Maduro next to Lula
Last Sunday (28), the president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro
Arrived to Brazil
after receiving an invitation from president Luiz Inácio Lula
da Silva (PT) to participate in the summit of South American countries, Unasur, this Tuesday (30th), in Brasília. The Venezuelan leader went to the Brazilian federal capital to hold a bilateral meeting with the PT leader on Monday (29).
Maduro has not set foot in Brazil since 2015, when the Planalto Palace
was still occupied by the former president Dilma Rousseff
(PT). Next year, Michel Temer
(MDB-SP) began to treat the Venezuelan president as an enemy and, as of 2019, Jair Bolsonaro
(PL-RJ) severed relations with Venezuela.
With the return of PT
to power, the Venezuelan government returned to relate to Brazil. On the second, Maduro and Lula met and the Brazilian president went so far as to say that it was “a historic moment”.
“You know the narrative that was built against Venezuela. From anti-democracy, from authoritarianism… So I think it’s up to Venezuela to show its narrative, so that it can effectively make people change their minds. (…) And I think that , for everything we talked about, your narrative will be infinitely better than the narrative they have been telling against you”, said the Brazilian president in an interview at the Planalto Palace, alongside Maduro.
The meeting, however, did not please everyone. The opposition accused the PT party of supporting a “dictator” and filed a series of requests demanding the government respond to the meeting. Parliamentarians who are against the Lula administration also presented notes of repudiation against the coming of Maduro to Brasilia.
The political scientist specialized in international relations and professor at Insper, Leandro Consentino, says that the “red carpet” treatment given by Lula to Maduro could harm the Brazilian president in several political aspects.
“In internal politics, Lula strengthens the opposition and gives a receipt that he defends the ideological question more than democracy, something that has always been accused by his opponents”, he analyzes.
Who is Nicolas Maduro?
Maduro was born on November 23, 1962 in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. He began his political career in the 1990s, joining the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. He became an influential leader in the country as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He came to be seen as a figure of complete confidence by Hugo Chávez, former president of the country, so much so that he became vice president in 2012. In the same year, he temporarily assumed the presidency, because Chávez was facing cancer and had to leave the government .
Em 2013, Hugo Chavez
died and Maduro was officially named president of Venezuela.
It was in his hands that the Venezuelan economy went through a huge decline, shrinking by 75% in the last 10 years. About seven million Venezuelans have left the country in the last decade because of financial difficulties.
At the time, Maduro even said that the departure of Venezuelans from the country was a “campaign of the right” and assured that everyone would return with the measures adopted by the government.
In 2018, or president from Venezuela
was re-elected for another six years in government. However, the electoral process received accusations of fraud and had a high abstention rate. The opposition did not recognize the result and won the support of dozens of countries, such as the United States, Canada, members of the European Union and Brazil.
Without recognizing Maduro’s victory, several countries began to treat the opponent Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Guaidó’s prestige, however, was lost over time, especially after Joe Biden won the US election in 2020.
The White House then applied strong sanctions against Venezuela, making life even worse for the population. Blackouts, unemployment rate reaching almost 65%, food shortages, urban violence, violation of human rights, persecution and censorship are some of the problems that occur there.
Is Maduro a drug trafficker?
In 2020, the United States government formally accused Maduro of being a drug trafficker. The statement was made by the then head of the Department of Justice, William Barr, who promised a reward of US$ 15 million for whoever captures the Venezuelan president.
“The Venezuelan people deserve an accountable and transparent representative government that serves the needs of the people, that does not betray the trust of the people by pardoning or employing public officials involved in the illegal trafficking of narcotics,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement. .
In addition to Maduro, 14 other people linked to the Venezuelan government are accused by the United States of alleged connection with the Los Soles cartel, including the Minister of Defense and the president of the Venezuelan Supreme Court.
Maduro, in turn, accuses the US and Colombia of conspiring against his country.
“I ratify my complaint! US and Colombia conspire and gave the order to bring violence to Venezuela. As head of state, I am obliged to defend the peace and stability of the entire homeland, under any circumstances. They couldn’t and won’t be able to!”, replied Maduro.
squid and mature
In 2016, Maduro took a stand against Dilma’s impeachment and criticized Michel Temer. On the other hand, the PT defended the Venezuelan president in 2018, claiming that Brazil could not break relations with Venezuela and that it refused to call Guaidó the ruler of the neighboring country.
In 2022, Maduro showed support for Lula in the Brazilian elections. With the PT victory, the Venezuelan government said it was looking forward to resuming trade relations with Brazilians.
In 2023, upon taking office, Lula immediately resumed diplomatic relations and invited the Venezuelan ruler to be in Brazil earlier this week.
“Venezuela has always been an exceptional partner for Brazil, but, due to political contingencies and mistakes, President Maduro did not come to Brazil for eight years, and Brazil did not go to Venezuela for a long time, and we have a small problem of a political, cultural, economic and commercial nature”, said the PT in a press conference at the Planalto Palace.
The most controversial moment in Lula’s speech was when he declared that Venezuela is “the victim of a narrative of anti-democracy and authoritarianism.”
Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the Washington Office for Latin America (Wola), a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the capital Washington, in the United States, countered. “Grave human rights violations are not a ‘narrative’. Victims’ pain is not a ‘narrative’”.
Opposition to Lula also did not approve of the president’s behavior and presented a series of requests repudiating the declaration.
Professor Leandro Consentino also sees the attitude adopted by the Brazilian representative in relation to Venezuela as a mistake.
“Lula harms himself internationally by trying to promote the narrative that Venezuela is a democracy. The Maduro regime violates human rights and persecutes opponents. The Brazilian president, by placing himself on the side of the Venezuelan government, loses leadership when speaking about the defender of democracy “, he points out.
“By pushing Venezuela, and not changing the false narrative about democracy in the country, Lula plays the game of China and Russia, which are not democracies either”, he adds.
Maduro’s arrival in Brazil
The Venezuelan president is in Brasilia because he was invited to participate in the Unasur (Union of South American Nations) meeting, which took place this Tuesday at the Itamaraty Palace. He also met on Monday with Lula for a bilateral meeting.
Unasur had its first meeting in 2008 on behalf of Lula and Hugo Chávez, responsible for governing Brazil and Venezuela, respectively. The group’s meeting is for leaders from 12 countries in South America, with the exception of Peru this year, to discuss cooperation measures in various areas such as education, health, environment, border security, among others.
Professor Leandro reports that Lula is getting closer to Venezuelans due to ideological alignment and because he wants to have a different speech from former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL-RJ). “He tries to change the narrative that Venezuela is not a dictatorship.”
But that positioning will not work, as international leaders know that the country is living under a dictatorship. “It is a view of Luis Alberto Lacalle, president of Uruguay, who is from the right, and also from Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, who is from the left”, he points out.
Finally, Consentino says that it is important for Brazil to maintain diplomatic and commercial relations with Venezuelans, because the neighboring country has influence, mainly in Latin America due to its oil reserves. However, he believes that Lula should try to make Venezuela follow the path of democracy.
Questions and answers
1. Who is Nicolas Maduro?
– President of Venezuela since 2013
2. How old is Nicolás Maduro?
– He was born on November 23, 1962, i.e. he is 60 years old
3. Is Nicolás Maduro married and have children?
– The Venezuelan president is married to Cilia Flores. The couple has one child.
4. What is Maduro’s party? Before becoming a politician, what did he do?
– Maduro was a machinist. He has been part of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) since the 1990s.
5. How did he come to power?
– After being foreign minister in the Hugo Chávez government, he became vice president in 2012. With Chávez’s death in 2013, Maduro took power.
6. Is Venezuela a dictatorship?
– International bodies, such as the UN, say that Venezuela currently lives in a dictatorship. The Maduro government is accused of violating human rights, censoring the press, not authorizing independence between the powers, using state security and intelligence agencies, equipping the Armed Forces to the government and not having held fair elections in 2018.
Maduro and countries that defend the Venezuelan government, such as Russia and China, say that Venezuela is the victim of a negative narrative by the United States.
7. Is Maduro a drug trafficker?
The United States accused Maduro in 2020 of being the head of a group that sells drugs internationally. President Venezuela denies the accusations and claims to be the victim of persecution.
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