Juan Guaidó, opponent of the dictatorial regime in Venezuela, said that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva does a great disservice to democracy by not opposing the Nicolás Maduro regime and human rights violations in the country.
“President Lula does a great disservice to democracy by not taking a frontal position in defense of human rights and, consequently, of democracy,” he declared, in an interview with the newspaper O Globo.
“If the attack on the Brazilian Parliament is deplorable, the attack on the Venezuelan Congress by Maduro is also deplorable,” said Guaidó, former interim president of Venezuela, whose government was dissolved in late December.
As did neighboring countries where the left reached the Presidency, Brazil returned to recognize the dictator Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela.
During the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian embassy in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, was closed by the Brazilian government.
Lula, however, resumed relations with Maduro.
For Guaidó, Lula makes invisible the violation of human rights suffered by immigrants and refugees in the country.
“A president with 24 days of government that minimizes or does not pronounce on the most severe humanitarian crisis ever seen on the continent, worse than in nations that are experiencing wars, such as Syria and Ukraine, does not understand Venezuela,” he explained.
“It is no wonder that Maduro is accused of crimes against humanity,” said Guaidó.
With information from Revista Oeste
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Read More from The Rio Times