Venezuelan President is Received at Brazil's Planalto Palace

On Monday, the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, the legislator Cilia Flores, were received with honors by the Brazilian President Lula da Silva and First Lady Rosangela da Silva at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia.

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Upon his arrival, Maduro received the honors corresponding to a Head of State and was awaited by Lula at the top of a ramp leading to the first floor of the Planalto Palace, where fifty soldiers in historical uniforms formed a welcome corridor.

On Tuesday, Lula will lead a regional summit, which will also be attended by the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay.

Lula and Maduro will have a private meeting. Besides dealing with bilateral issues, both leaders will analyze the internal dialogue process in Venezuela, which takes place within the framework of the 2024 elections.

After this meeting, both presidents will make a joint statement. Subsequently, Lula will offer a lunch to the Venezuelan delegation at the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Maduro is making his first visit to Brazil since 2015, when he arrived in this South American country to attend the inauguration of President Dilma Rousseff. During the administration of President Michel Temer, bilateral relations between the two countries began to cool down.

In January 2019, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro assumed the Brazilian presidency, closed the Brazilian embassy in Caracas, and issued a decree prohibiting Maduro from entering Brazil.

This decree was revoked by Lula da Silva on January 1, when he assumed the Presidency and ordered the immediate resumption of relations with Venezuela.