President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,. File photo.
By Andrew Korybko – Feb 11, 2023
The Lula Liberals are basically a Brazilian knockoff of QAnon, but for left-wing folks instead of right-wing ones like Trump’s supporters are. Just like that US movement weaponized conspiracy theories to cover up for every time that he went against his base’s policy expectations so that they don’t revolt against him, so too is that Brazilian one doing the same to cover up for Lula disappointing his leftist-multipolar base by condemning Russia so that they don’t revolt against him either.
“The Workers’ Party Is Infiltrated By Pro-US Liberal-Globalists”, which is proven on a daily basis by the way in which its supporters defend Lula’s condemnation of Russia. He earlier compared its special operation in Ukraine to the US’ Hybrid War on Venezuela, and now he put out a statement with Biden where “They deplored the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine by Russia and the annexation of parts of its territory as flagrant violations of international law and called for a just and durable peace.”
These fierce condemnations betray the spirit of the Russian-Brazilian Strategic Partnership and serve as evidence that Lula cut a deal with the US to be released from prison as was explained in detail here. It would be redundant to rehash those arguments in the present piece, hence why intrepid readers should review that analysis if they’re interested in learning more. The point in bringing it up is to emphasize that the foreign policy of his third term aligns much more with US interests than his prior two’s.
Lula isn’t playing “5D chess” against the US nor does he have a so-called “master plan” for secretly going against it. Simply put, he concluded – whether rightly or wrongly and irrespective of whether one supports him or not – that it’s in Brazil’s best interests at this point in time to partially go along with the US’ anti-Russian policies. Lula won’t go as far as dispatching arms to Kiev, whether directly or indirectly via Germany, but he also won’t shy away from publicly condemning Russia either.
The “Lula Liberals”, which refers to the liberal-globalist faction that’s hijacked his Workers’ Party and exerts disproportionate influence over how his supporters frame his third term’s foreign policy, have initiated a disinformation campaign designed to cover up his condemnations of Russia. They rightly expect that its traditional leftist-multipolar cadre would revolt against him so explicitly betraying the spirit of their strategic partnership just to please the US, hence why they’re obfuscating reality.
To that end, the Lula Liberals have introduced a collection of lies into the information ecosystem aimed at manipulating the Workers’ Party’s base into actually praising his condemnations of Russia, or at the very least explaining them away instead of revolting against this unexpected foreign policy shift that contradicts their multipolar principles. They primarily center on the earlier mentioned “5D chess” and “master plan” explanations, which are bonafide conspiracy theories, but also include other aspects too.
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For instance, it was common for them to gaslight that his comparison of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine to the US’ Hybrid War on Venezuela wasn’t a condemnation of Moscow but of Washington. Now that he unambiguously condemned Russia in his joint statement with Biden, however, they claim that he had no choice but to agree to that wording. That’s a lie though since none of his BRICS peers condemned Russia in their joint statements with Biden or after their calls with him like Lula just did.
Others, meanwhile, claim that his condemnations align with China’s official stance towards the Ukrainian Conflict. That’s not true since no Chinese official – including President Xi – has condemned Russia like Lula already did on two occasions. Furthermore, while their reaffirmation of China’s support for sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the UN Charter has been interpreted by both sides as supporting their positions, it definitely isn’t an unambiguous condemnation like Lula’s two thus far.
Another disinformation narrative that’s rapidly emerging in light of his joint anti-Russian statement with Biden is to claim that Lula was simply implementing the foreign policy principles stipulated in the Article 4 of the Brazilian Constitution. That’s another manipulation of the truth since Bolsonaro outright refused to condemn Russia, yet neither Lula nor anyone in his Workers’ Party demanded that he be investigated for supposedly violating his constitutional obligations to practice foreign policy in a certain way.
To summarize the Lula Liberals’ top three lies for covering up his condemnation of Russia, they: 1) ridiculously deny him the agency to have requested a different wording in their joint statement if he truly disagreed with it like they claim; 2) counterfactually compare his unprecedented condemnation of Russia to China’s official neutral stance towards the Ukrainian Conflict; and 3) falsely claim that he had no choice if he wanted to adhere to the foreign policy principles stipulated in the Brazilian Constitution.
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These aforementioned lies are debunked by the following three truths: 1) no BRICS leader condemned Russia in their joint statements with Biden after meeting or calling him; 2) no Chinese representative, including President Xi, has ever condemned Russia’s special operation like Lula has already done twice; and 3) the Workers’ Party didn’t ever demand that Bolsonaro be investigated for refusing to condemn Russia, which proves that his decision didn’t violate the Brazilian Constitution.
After having their lies debunked, some among the minority of Lula Liberals who aren’t triggered into toxic ad hominem trolling will concede that his condemnations of Russia were disappointing but claim that they averted a US coup against him. This is yet another lie since it implies that the US has already overthrown other leaders who refused to condemn Russia, yet not a single one of those dozens of leaders from states much smaller and weaker than Brazil have been overthrown as punishment for that.
The Lula Liberals are basically a Brazilian knockoff of QAnon, but for left-wing folks instead of right-wing ones like Trump’s supporters are. Just like that US movement weaponized conspiracy theories to cover up for every time that he went against his base’s policy expectations so that they don’t revolt against him, so too is that Brazilian one doing the same to cover up for Lula disappointing his leftist-multipolar base by condemning Russia so that they don’t revolt against him either.
Understood in this way, it can therefore be concluded that the Lula Liberals are waging a form of Hybrid Warfare on Brazil, but this time in support of that leader instead of against him like the US and their opponents previously did when it wanted to discredit the Workers’ Party and jail him. It’s thus ironic that those who claim to support him are nowadays the ones employing such weaponized perception management methods, but this just shows how deeply liberal-globalists have infiltrated that party.
(Substack)
Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
