Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticised what he known as the return of a colonial strategy in direction of creating nations throughout a summit in Colombia.
However whereas Lula didn’t point out United States President Donald Trump in his remarks, he gestured at actions undertaken by the Trump administration, together with the January 3 abduction of Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro and the gas blockade in Cuba.
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“It’s not doable for somebody to suppose that they personal different nations,” Lula mentioned, in an obvious reference to US coverage.
“What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?”
Lula delivered his remarks at Saturday’s summit for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which featured a high-level discussion board with delegates from Africa.
He instructed delegates that their nations had already skilled being plundered for gold, silver, diamonds and minerals.
“After taking the whole lot we had, now they need to personal the vital minerals and uncommon earths that we now have,” Lula mentioned, with out specifying who “they” is likely to be. “They need to colonise us once more.”
The left-wing Brazilian president additionally criticised the continuing warfare launched by the US and Israel towards Iran.
He drew a parallel between that battle, which started on February 28, and the US-led Iraq warfare, which started in 2003 on the pretext of eliminating “weapons of mass destruction”.
“Iran has been invaded underneath the pretext that Iran was constructing a nuclear bomb,” Lula mentioned, earlier than pivoting to the US marketing campaign in Iraq, which resulted within the overthrow of Iraqi chief Saddam Hussein.
“The place are Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons?” Lula requested. “The place are they? Who discovered them?”
A historical past of intervention
Washington’s historical past of intervention in Latin America goes again greater than 200 years to when then-President James Monroe claimed the hemisphere as a part of the US sphere of affect.
Whereas large-scale, overt US involvement within the area largely petered out after the Chilly Warfare, Trump has rekindled the legacy.
Since assuming workplace final 12 months, Trump has launched boat strikes towards alleged drug traffickers within the Caribbean, ordered a naval blockade on Venezuelan oil exports, and gotten concerned in electoral politics in Honduras and Argentina.
Trump imposed a 50 % tariff on Brazilian items final 12 months, citing the trial towards the nation’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, as a motive. The US has additionally proven eager curiosity in Brazil’s uncommon earth deposits.
Then, on January 3, US forces kidnapped and imprisoned Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro, flying him to New York to face drug and weapons fees.
Whereas such actions have thrilled right-wing leaders throughout the continent, they’ve raised fears amongst left-wing politicians, who’ve voiced grave issues over what they see as US bullying.
“We can not enable anybody to intervene and violate the territorial integrity of every nation,” Lula mentioned Saturday.
Frustration with the UN
Lula, who has mentioned he’ll run for a fourth, nonconsecutive time period in Brazil’s upcoming October elections, additionally criticised the United Nations for its incapacity to cease a number of conflicts all over the world.
“What we’re witnessing is the whole and absolute failure of the United Nations,” he mentioned, pointing to the conditions in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran.
He known as, as soon as once more, for reform of the UN Safety Council, which is remitted with making certain worldwide peace and safety. But it surely has did not cease main conflicts due to the veto energy of its 5 everlasting members: China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA.
There have been many years of efforts to reform the Safety Council. However they’ve all been unsuccessful.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom the US Drug Enforcement Administration has designated a “precedence goal”, echoed Lula’s condemnation of the UN.
The physique “is performing in impotence, and that’s not what it was created for. It was created after World Warfare II exactly to stop wars. And but, what we now have at this time is warfare,” Petro mentioned on the summit.
However the world wants the UN to supply local weather options and curb world warming, Petro mentioned.
“The extra severe humanity’s issues change into, the less instruments we now have for collective motion. And that path leads solely to barbarism.”
Comparatively few presidents and prime ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean attended the summit in Colombia, an indication of the continent’s deep divisions.
These current included the presidents of Brazil, Uruguay, Burundi and Colombia, in addition to the prime ministers of Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, together with deputy ministers, international ministers and ambassadors.
