Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected promising to save democracy. There are those who have leaned on this noble mission, self-assigned by Lula, to sanitize their conscience to vote for him, even knowing that the PT administrations became known for having generated and given birth to the biggest corruption scandal in history. Beauty. Lula is elected, but he still hasn’t made it clear what his commitment to democracy is. Was the mission limited to defeating Jair Bolsonaro?
What appreciation do Lula, his group and party have for democracy? The signals that PT members are sending from the transition team and beyond are discouraging. To think about Brazilian foreign policy, for example, Lula chose heavyweights from the most radical PT. At the start, he put the director of the São Paulo Forum, Monica Valente, and the secretary of international relations of the PT, Romênio Pereira, to thicken the soup of the team that loves such “active and haughty” diplomacy and has a passion for the South-South axis. South.
Valente and Pereira are unconditional fans of Latin dictators such as the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, the Cuban gerontocrats and the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega. Last year, the duo caused embarrassment by publishing an official note congratulating teammate Ortega on his victory in an election simulation, which was marked by the arrest of opponents and violence against those who dared to protest. The note was removed from the air, to avoid electoral damage.
This week, the Embassy of Venezuela in Brazil – whose entire “diplomatic corps” lost its status with the Itamaraty and is basically composed of illegal immigrants – held a ceremony in honor of federal deputy Paulo Pimenta, from PT in Rio Grande do Sul. Declared personas non grata by the Brazilian government, they should have left Brazil in 2020, but Pimenta filed a lawsuit at the STF and guaranteed their stay here.
Pimenta was also the one who led a violent reaction in an attempt to retake the embassy by diplomats (these were indeed recognized by the Brazilian government) appointed by Juan Guaidó. In black bloc style, Pimenta gathered people from the PSOL, MST and PT to beat up Venezuelan citizens inside their embassy. All for the already declared love for Maduro and the Bolivarian revolution.
In Cuba, the regime has already begun to prepare for the dreamed resumption of the export of medical labor. The state press, which was counting down to Lula’s election and not hiding plans to send the doctors to Brazil, went into sleep mode. Medical sources on the island say it’s pure disingenuous. They do not want to draw attention so as not to disturb a possible return that, by all indications, would be via intermediaries such as the Northeast Consortium – a left-wing association of governors that emerged in 2019 to oppose, or , as they say, resistance, to the newly sworn-in Jair Bolsonaro.
To help Cuba, PT governments tore up Brazilian laws and allowed our country to become an extension of the arms of the communist regime of the Castros. More than 15 a thousand doctors passed through Brazil in a regime in which 15% of their salaries were confiscated to feed the regime’s coffers. But since Cuba is a socialist symbol, slavery is not slavery. Abuse is not abuse. Crimes are not crimes.
A comradely tolerance that has made the left relativize and, above all, glamorize dictatorial regimes. Something deeply incompatible with anyone who has the slightest commitment to democratic values.
Dictatorship is dictatorship. Be it left, right or religious.
Lula has already demonstrated in the past an embarrassing fluidity in his commitment to democracy. He deported Cubans who were hoping to be admitted in the midst of an asylum application. Under the guise of building peace, he helped Iran buy time to accelerate its nuclear program, tried to muzzle the press, and squandered hundreds of millions of dollars from Brazilian taxpayers in loans granted with almost no guarantees to Latin American and African dictatorships, for through the BNDES.
Lula has the chance to adjust his route. The issue, however, is no longer about chance. It is necessary to know if Lula wants to change. Signs so far indicate no.
