Lula and Canadian Prime Minister talk about Venezuela

The Planalto Palace reported this Tuesday (13) that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a phone call from the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. In the call, the Canadian expressed support for Brazil’s initiative in defense of democracy and transparency in the Venezuelan electoral processwhose results that re-elected Nicolás Maduro for a new term are contested by the opposition and by several countries.

According to Planalto, Lula commented that “there is a history of mistakes by the international community in relation to that country, specifically citing the imposition of sanctions and the recognition of Juan Guaidó as president.” In 2019, the then president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, which was controlled by the opposition, declared himself president of the country, with the support of part of the international community, which, in practice, never came to fruition.

In his conversation with Trudeau, the Brazilian president highlighted the coordination efforts of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to normalize the political situation in the neighboring country. “The most important thing is to keep South America free from conflicts, with prosperity and harmony,” said Lula, according to Planalto, while emphasizing the importance of dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition. The three countries have been working together requesting public disclosure of the results from each of the 30,000 polling stations in Venezuela’s presidential election. Another request is that authorities deal with “caution and moderation” regarding the demonstrations that have been taking place in the country since the end of the election.

In a social media post to discuss the phone call, Justin Trudeau called for verification of the election results in Venezuela. “Canada’s position is clear: election results must be legitimized through credible verification and must reflect the will of the people of Venezuela,” the prime minister said.

Lula also invited Trudeau to a meeting of democratic governments against extremism, to be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York. The initiative is being organized by the Brazilian president together with the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.