Featured image: Former Brazilian president and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a rally during the presidential campaign in Curitiba. Photo: Reuters/Rodolfo Buhrer.
At a press conference on Thursday, October 20, former Brazilian president Lula da Silva said that unlike President Jair Bolsonaro, he does not recognize Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
“It is incredible that the Venezuelan ambassador in Brazil, María Teresa Belandria, is the ambassador appointed by Guaidó. She does not represent either Venezuela or Guaidó, who is no longer anything in Venezuela, and they continue to treat her as if she were an ambassador,” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said.
The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) reacted in this way to a video published on Tuesday by Bolsonaro, in which he apologized, in the company of Belandria, for accusing some young Venezuelan migrants of engaging in prostitution.
Guaidó Envoy Backs Up Bolsonaro After He Insults Venezuelans in Brazil
According to Lula, Bolsonaro used Belandria to “try to convince” Venezuelan families with the intention that they “speak favorably” about the current president.
Guaidó proclaimed himself “interim president” of Venezuela in a square in the capital, Caracas, in January 2019 with the support of the United States. According to the Venezuelan government, the former deputy is a puppet at the service of Western interests who, for the time being, have allowed him to manage and control billions of dollars from Venezuela’s frozen accounts abroad.
The second round of the presidential elections in Brazil will be held on October 30, and more than 156 million Brazilians are being called to the polls to elect the next president of Brazil. In the first round, Lula obtained 48.4% of the vote against Bolsonaro, who received 43.2% of the electoral votes, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court.
The winning presidential candidate must wait until January 1 to formally assume office and be sworn in as president.
Brazil: Lula Goes for Popular Support While Bolsonaro Embraces Hate
Lula continues to be the favorite candidate in all the polls, while Bolsonaro is in the eye of a hurricane of criticism for the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis in the South American country. In addition, the Brazilian president has been involved in multiple corruption cases, which have caused his popularity to take a hit.
(HispanTV)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/EF/KZ
