Maduro’s behavior “leaves much to be desired,” says Lula, who compares the Venezuelan president to Bolsonaro

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva insisted on Friday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro need to test who won the presidential elections held last July in Venezuela. “I think Maduro’s behavior leaves a lot to be desired,” said the Brazilian Head of State.

Asked about the political crisis in the neighboring country, during an interview with radio Difusora, in the Brazilian city of Goiânia, Lula da Silva stressed that the Venezuelan leader, as president, “must show that he is the favorite of the Venezuelan people, but not no.”

The Brazilian president later recalled what happened to his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, after the 2022 Brazilian presidential election: “When the guy is an extremist, he doesn’t accept. [o resultado de eleições]. Bolsonaro spent almost a month locked up crying, he went to the United States. I think Maduro should say the following: ‘I will show that I am the people’s favorite’, but he does not do it,” Lula da Silva said, quoted by uol Notícias.

In addition, Lula da Silva stressed that he does not recognize “the electoral result of Venezuela, [porque estava] He only demanded that Maduro had delivered the minutes to the National Electoral Council, which had three members of the Government and two from the opposition. [Maduro] He preferred not to go through the electoral college and went directly to the Supreme Court,” said the Brazilian president.

“So I felt entitled to say that I didn’t recognize that. [o resultado da eleição]because it was not right, because I also do not recognize the fact that the opposition wins. There [na Venezuela] There was only one solution: to hold new elections or form a coalition so they could live together democratically,” he added.

Lula da Silva said that Brazil and Colombia, two countries affected by the migration crisis caused by the flight of thousands of Venezuelans dissatisfied with the Maduro regime and who are trying to negotiate a solution to the crisis in the neighboring country, decided to adopt the same position in relation to the elections supposedly won by Maduro.

“We are now in a unique position between Brazil and Colombia. We do not accept the election results, but we will not break relations and we do not agree with unilateral punishment, blockade, because the blockade does not harm MaduroThe blockade harms the people and I believe that the people should not be victims of this,” concluded Lula da Silva.

Maduro’s victory was declared by the National Electoral College (CNE) and then ratified in a controversial process that the Venezuelan leader himself promoted before the Supreme Court of his country, although to date no detailed voting records have been presented.

Lula da Silva, along with Colombian President Gustavo Petro and, to a lesser extent, Mexican President Andrés López Obrador, unsuccessfully attempted mediation and insisted on the publication of the electoral voting record, which the opposition published on a website with the results being largely favorable to its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.

This week, the crisis between Maduro and the opposition worsened when the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the court to issue an arrest warrant against Urrutia, after he failed to appear at three summons, in which he was to give statements as part of the investigation into the publication of minutes collected by witnesses and members of electoral tables distributed by his political group.

The PUD released the minutes, which the executive branch, in turn, called false, after the National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro the winner of the elections.

The current president’s victory has been questioned by several countries, some of which support the claim that González Urrutia won the country’s leadership.