Lula Da Silva receives Maduro one day before the summit of South American presidents in Brazil

The presidents of Brazil and Venezuela, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Nicolás Maduro, respectively, expressed great harmony this Monday during a bilateral meeting in Brasilia, during which both leaders expressed their desire to strengthen relations.

Lula questioned the “political errors” that distanced the governments of Venezuela and Brazil and insisted that relations between the two countries are “full”, after receiving his Venezuelan counterpart at the Planalto Palace.

The Brazilian president stressed that the trade relationship, which he said amounted to some 6.6 billion dollars, is currently less than 2 billion dollars. In this sense, he said he hoped that, between the two countries, a “full integration” would take place that goes beyond trade and a relationship would be achieved that “covers all areas.”

Maduro, who was received on Monday with honors as head of state in Brasilia, after 8 years without visiting that country, plans to participate on Tuesday in the summit of South American presidents.

Lula defined as “inexplicable” that a country be subject to dozens of sanctions and said that it is in Maduro’s hands to “build” his narrative so that Venezuela is “a sovereign country in which only its people, through free vote, choose to their rulers.” According to him, authoritarianism in Venezuela is a “constructed narrative.”

During his speech, Maduro denounced the imposition of sanctions and questioned what he defined as the “ideologization of international relations”, in reference to the suspension of relations between Venezuela and Brazil, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro and assured that currently there is an opportunity for the implementation of a “new cooperation map” in all areas.

“Suddenly from Brazil they closed all the doors and all the windows, being neighboring countries, being countries that love each other, incredible. It was intended to assault the Venezuelan embassy here, ”he said.

Lula Da Silva, who assured there is a “prejudice” against Venezuela and said he had received criticism for “being a friend” of the Venezuelan government, described opposition leader Juan Guaidó as an “impostor.”

“I argued a lot with my European colleagues and told them that I did not understand how a continent that had managed to exercise democracy so well was capable of accepting the idea of ​​an impostor being president of the Republic because they did not like or dislike the president. elected”, said Lula Da Silva in a joint press conference with Maduro.

Although the constant power failures In the country, Maduro said that Venezuela is “prepared” to rebuild electricity cooperation with the state of Roraima and the entire border population.

“We have a 120 MW offer ready, which requires a basic investment of about 4 or 5 million dollars based on rebuilding the transmission lines. If we were to efficiently make this happen, we could be there very soon reconnecting Guri with the state of Roraima”, he expressed.

Asked about the possibility of Venezuela formally joining the bloc of emerging economies, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, better known as BRICS, Lula assured that they will discuss the official requests and personally he was “favorable”.

“My dream is to have a common currency between our countries to use in transactions in such a way that we can be independent of the dollar. It is not possible that we do not have more freedom to negotiate, my dream is that the BRICS have a currency”, declared Lula when asked if there was talk about the use of a currency other than the dollar.

Maduro, for his part, stressed that they addressed the role of the BRICS and insisted on the need for a South American union.

“The BRICS have become a great magnet. How many applications do you already have, more than 30 countries (…) if you ask Venezuela, you aspire to be accepted, Venezuela says yes”, Maduro highlighted.

The Venezuelan president announced that a meeting of defense ministers could be held soon to establish new protocols on the border, especially in the fight against drug trafficking and all kinds of crime.

Rejection

It is the first time that Maduro has visited a South American country since 2018, when he was re-elected in elections questioned by a large part of the international community and his presence in Brazil was questioned by some political sectors of the country.

In a letter Addressed to the US ambassador in Brazil, Elizabeth Frawley, the federal deputy for the Liberal Party, Carlos Jordy, expressed “outrage” at the presence of Maduro in Brazil and requested information on the measures that the US government can adopt to capture him, in reference to charges filed in 2020 against Maduro.

At that time, former US Attorney General William Barr filed drug charges against Maduro and a $15 million reward was offered for information that may lead to his capture.

The measure was described at that time by the Venezuelan president as an “extravagantly extremist action.”

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