“A Crack Nicknamed Lula”
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Photo: EFE/ Andre Borges
By: Alvaro Cuesta
November 2, 2024 Hour: 4:25 pm
What’s going on here? What we see through the political crack caused by Brazil and its absurd veto against Venezuela in BRICS is the gross political regression of a figure who, despite some reservations and hesitations, was long regarded as a major force for Latin American and Caribbean unity. But something has cracked, leaving us with a rift that the right is celebrating. Is this the bolsonarization of Lula?
We won’t be shocked by betrayals or defections, as we’ve already seen plenty and have swallowed their poison laced with media nectar to the point of nausea. After all, they are essential ingredients in the cocktail of historical betrayals that have cost blood, exploitation, and tears to many brother nations. Where do we even start with the inventory of betrayals? Is Lula one of these cases? Was it really necessary to wait for the Venezuelan government to arrive at the BRICS summit to inform them there of the brutal geopolitical decision to veto their integration? Who are the accomplices in this fourth-rate trick? Who wins and who loses? This debate isn’t about socialism.
BRICS is a bloc of states that, in rough numbers, involves about 42 percent of the world’s population, which is estimated to cover about 30 percent of the territory and represent 23 percent of global GDP. It accounts for roughly 18 percent of international trade. It has a nascent Development Bank, which could serve as a counterweight to the International Monetary Fund. In this context, Venezuela’s delayed entry into BRICS is by no means a defeat; it’s simply a delay that does more harm to the bloc because the political, economic, and moral stature of the people of Bolívar is a necessary strength for emerging multipolarity. What hasn’t been understood about the historical, political, strategic, and geopolitical importance of Venezuela?
That bolsonarized veto from Lula has already had repercussions in every sense. Even if it were just a senile tantrum caused by the frustration of the “tribe’s elder” who, in an interventionist way, demanded “the records” from a sovereign government and was met with a ruling from the Supreme Court, even if the tantrum were a form of revenge for his obvious political humiliation, it would still be a disgrace out of place, out of time, and out of history. It would be a tremendous embarrassment, widespread in its absurdity. Especially because it opens a “Lula rift” that he himself will be unable to repair. Of course, we aren’t talking about socialism.
There are no procedural data that provide reasons for such a veto. There were no lack of reasons or proposals. The host of the summit, Vladimir Putin, took the time to congratulate Nicolás Maduro on his electoral victory and held official meetings that, by simply being scheduled, constitute mutual recognition and a willingness to work together. What part of this did the Brazilian diplomacy not understand? What part of the global reality and the issues of the South does BRICS still need to grasp to veto Brazil’s veto themselves?
In a very measured statement, the Venezuelan foreign ministry stated that with this veto, they are “reproducing the hatred, exclusion, and intolerance promoted from Western power centers to prevent, for now, the homeland of Bolívar from joining this organization.” It is “an action that constitutes an aggression against Venezuela and a hostile gesture that adds to the criminal policy of sanctions imposed against a brave and revolutionary people. No trick or maneuver conceived against Venezuela will stop the course of history.” It could have been much more aggressive and called out the right-wing operations throughout the South.
And now we’re left with a complex world and an immediate future filled with irrational war and destruction of ecosystems. We face the rapid depletion of water, oil, and oxygen. We’re looking at the multiplication of hunger, unemployment, and the insane dispossession of land and cultures. We’re left with the American imperial hate rolling around in its electoral mess, filled with filthy rhetoric and unbridled intellectual misery. We’re faced with political uncertainty caused by both the right and the left. What we have on the table is “the mother of all battles,” which is the class struggle, with a working class desperate to find political direction amid the bourgeois ideological sewer. And what about the unity of the forces in the south?
We’re left with all the historical injustices against indigenous peoples around the globe. We carry the wounds of thousands of struggles that sought ways to strengthen and finally succeed. We remember the thousand betrayals by the countless scoundrels who exploited grassroots movements to elevate themselves and then acted like rats (sorry to the rats) scurrying away with what they stole to their bureaucratic and official burrows. Will we find you there, Lula? Many who believed in you and defended you even during your worst moments in prison are asking that right now. That’s what’s being signed here.
If there were any possibility for redemption, even against all odds, Lula would need to return to the grassroots and consult them about the unwavering respect for the democratic will of our peoples who have fought for centuries to secure their freedom and sovereignty. No more arrogant interference, no matter how many gerontological arguments are thrown around. Lula should publicly apologize to BRICS for delaying Venezuela’s entrance into an economic, political, and cultural bloc that needs it “like air.” Lula should speak to the peoples of the south, show some shame and remorse, ask forgiveness from the people of Bolívar, and immediately work to lift his Bolsonaro-style veto, because that’s not how you treat your brothers. And then we can keep debating.
Autor: Fernando Buen Abad Dominguez
Fuente: Fernando Buen Abad Dominguez
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