Maduro in Brazil: dictators admire dictators

Brazil seems to be a country with a promising future, but one that does not let go of the past. Now we are aligning ourselves with a socialist dictatorship that caused the largest exodus of refugees in the history of Latin America.

Nicolás Maduro arrived in Brazil, and that was already expected, after one of the sons of the Cuban dictatorship, Lula, became president of our country. Lula, Maduro, Fernández, Ortega, Gabriel Boric and other Latin American socialists are all aligned in their plans to make Latin America a great Soviet Union. The Venezuelan dictator, considered by various bodies, governments and entities as a drug trafficker, terrorist and anti-democratic dictator, is barred from entering several countries. Brazil was one of them throughout Bolsonaro's 4 years, but now the federal government is in a very friendly relationship with Maduro.

After the Venezuelan dictator arrived in Brazil, many Brazilian politicians, journalists and influencers remembered the reward that exists for the capture of the Venezuelan, which is 15 million dollars. This amount would be paid by the American government, which today is led by a senile gentleman who is aligned with the progressive agenda. It's funny that even in Argentina, governed by a socialist and friend of the Foro de São Paulo comrades, Maduro has avoided visiting. That's because he was afraid of being arrested on landing. Now, however, the dictator has found a new home, Brazil, which is one step away from becoming yet another third-world dictatorship if nothing is done.

The most embarrassing thing for us Brazilians is that not long ago Lula invented excuses to avoid looking the Ukrainian president in the eye, who was in charge of a country attacked by Russia. Now, to make matters worse, we are associating with Venezuela. The path we are taking is dangerous, because we are in times of censorship and violation of civil and political rights, threats to communication companies and now we have a Maduro in Brazil. Unfortunately, bad things are happening too fast.

The closer relationship with the Venezuelan government, in fact, is just another small step in a series of nods to other dictatorships. We must remember that not long ago, the federal government opened the port of Rio de Janeiro to warships from Iran, a dictatorship hostile to western countries and that promotes terrorism. Furthermore, Lula himself has already accused the Ukrainian government of being responsible for the Russian invasion of his territory. And we cannot forget that the Chinese dictatorship, accused of violating human rights and censoring its own people, has become the great model desired by the President of the Republic.

Will the Brazilian extreme left, said to be democratic, and the center-left moderates remain silent on this quasi-love relationship between Lula and Maduro? We must remember what millions of innocent people in Venezuela went through with that despot in power, who is perpetuated in government thanks to rigged elections. Hyperinflation and the economic shutdown of the Venezuelan government has driven more than 90% of its people into extreme poverty. This situation in which people went to the trash to look for leftover food, and some killed their pets. Entrepreneurship and finding a job has become extremely rare, and people survive there thanks to the black market.

For all that, we witnessed one of the biggest refugee crises coming from Venezuela to several countries – Brazil is one of them. In the same way that in Cuba's prison island regulations, bureaucracies, monetary instabilities prevent the creation of wealth through entrepreneurship and capital accumulation, Venezuelans became slaves. The sad reality of our neighbor to the north is that its hypocritical and millionaire elite survives on imported products that are paid for with dollars from drug trafficking.

But this visit by Maduro to our country has shown us something: that the state is the enemy of the common citizen who works to pay taxes and sustain the public machine. This is because after the deplorable scene of the Brazilian Armed Forces saluting a criminal who is a drug dealer, it reveals much of the incentive of a state official. All military personnel are more concerned with keeping their jobs than defending a priori morals or ethics, or even the Constitution. His main motivation is to follow orders from his superiors, regardless of who is currently president. What happened clashes even with the supposed defenders of legality, some of them high-ranking military personnel.

One of the topics that Lula discussed with Maduro was about the economy and trade relations between the two countries. The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, stated on May 29 that a working group will be created with the aim of discussing the debt that Venezuela owes our country. This debt that the Venezuelan state has with Brazil is worth US$ 1 billion dollars, due to financing from the BNDES and also to companies that exported to Venezuela. After a lunch with Lula at the Itamaraty Palace, Maduro said that this working group will aim to establish the truth about the amount of the debt. But we know you can't trust these guys, who won elections through lies and continue to lie to this day. Even if Haddad has signaled that Venezuela will pay Brazil back in some way, it's hard to imagine how a broke and deadbeat country will actually come up with that money.

In addition to the economy, members of Brazilian diplomacy said that one of the topics to be addressed during Maduro's visit is about the new Venezuelan elections. Several countries are eyeing the elections scheduled for May 2024, such as the United States, Mexico and Norway. Some members of the Lula government revealed that the current opposition that exists in Venezuela has signaled that it does not intend to interrupt the dictator's mandate, but they are working to make possible an election with legitimate conditions so that different parties can compete, something that seemed like a dream over there.

Sadly, Venezuela's dictator has been in power since 2013, when former socialist dictator Hugo Chavez died. And throughout his rule, Maduro has been frequently accused of violating human rights, censoring and controlling the press and undermining any political opposition. In 2023, Brazil reached the mark of 100 thousand Venezuelans who are internalized in our country due to the economic and social crisis that took over Venezuela. Several other countries in South America receive Venezuelan refugees, such as Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. And we know very well that no card-carrying socialist has taken the opposite route: that of going to live in Venezuela of their own free will. Something that goes against the discourse that government control over the economy brings good results, after all, the greatest enemy of Marxists and progressives is reality itself. It is undeniable that the crisis in Venezuela is the worst in the country's history, reaching more than 7 million refugees who have abandoned their homeland. This number is based on data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Lula's final message is the worst, and just proves what those who denounced his love for dictatorships and his plans for a socialist Latin America said. The president took advantage of the meeting to defend that all countries have a “special affection” for Venezuela and Cuba. In addition, and to make matters worse, the PT also indicated that the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) should resume its granting of loans to the Venezuelan government, despite the current debt of more than US$ 1 billion that they have with our country. .

Just to quickly remind you of the origin of Venezuela's debt to our country, this was due to works financed by the BNDES. One of them was from a Usina Siderúrgica Nacional, operated by the contractor Andrade Gutierrez. Contracted in 2010, the work had a loan in the amount of US$ 865 million. However, due to Operation Lava Jato investigations, funding ended up being suspended. Another major project was the construction of Line 2 of the Los Teques Metro, under the responsibility of Odebrecht, which received a loan of US$ 862 million, which was also suspended due to suspicions of corruption. And it is to this past that we are returning, to the past where the Brazilian people were obliged to pay interest on other countries' debts to us.

It is sad to think that much of what was built in terms of change and political renewal and ideas has been thrown into the trash can, all with the consent of the exempt. A few years ago, Brazilians celebrated the arrest of corrupt politicians. Nowadays, a large part of the press, so-called intellectuals, influencers and artists are silent when a drug-trafficking dictator comes to Brazil and is received in a special ceremony, with the privilege of going up the ramp of the Planalto Palace. But this is not a fatalistic, despairing message; the right is not dead, it is still going strong, our ideas are bulletproof, but we are fighting the hardest battle in history.