The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvastated this Friday that he remains “outraged” by the recent US military intervention in Venezuelaone of his first public statements on the matter.
Lula, who until now had spoken out through statements on the subject, described the operation in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured and taken to the United States as “lack of respect for territorial integrity.”
“I can’t believe it… Maduro knew that there were 15,000 American soldiers in the Caribbean Sea, he knew that every day there was a threat…”, he stated during an event, almost three weeks after the events.
In that sense, the president declared that South America is “a territory of peace” without nuclear weapons, but added that Brazil “is not going to bow its head in front of anyone.”
When Maduro was captured on January 3, the Brazilian president condemned the intervention in a statement and said that the military operation crossed “an unacceptable line,” in addition to creating a “dangerous precedent.”
Lula has tried to maintain a delicate balance in his relations with the American president, Donald Trumpwho has spoken favorably of the Brazilian.
After several months of tension, negotiations between the leaders led the US Government to reduce the high tariffs imposed on Brazilian imports and lift sanctions against the Supreme Court judge in charge of the coup d’état judicial process against former president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.
The Venezuelan intervention and the Peace Board proposal, which Lula described today as an attempt to create a “new UN” with Trump as “owner”, have once again strained relations.