President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Friday (23) that world politics is going through a critical moment, “with multilateralism being thrown away by unilateralism”. During the closing of the 14th National Meeting of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), in Salvador, Lula said that the charter of the United Nations (UN) is being torn up and criticized the proposal of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to create a Peace Council. For the Brazilian president, Trump wants to create a new UN to be the owner.
“The law of the strongest is prevailing, the UN charter is being torn up and, instead of us correcting the UN, which we have been demanding since I was president in 2003, reform of the UN with the entry of new countries [como membros permanentes no Conselho de Segurança]with the entry of Mexico, Brazil, African countries… And what is happening: President Trump is making a proposal to create a new UN, in which he alone is the owner of the UN”, stated Lula.
The President of the United States invited Lula to form the Peace Council, which will be created to oversee the work of a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Lula also said that he is calling several world leaders to discuss the issue, including the Chinese President Xi Jinping; from Russia, Vladimir Putin; the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi; and the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.
“I’m talking to make it possible for us to find a way to get together and not allow multilateralism to be thrown to the ground and for the force of the gun to prevail, of the intolerance of any country in the world”, he pointed out.
The president once again criticized the United States’ action in Venezuela, which resulted in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and the deputy and first lady, deputy Cilia Flores.
“I’ve been outraged all night about what happened in Venezuela. I can’t believe it. Maduro knew that there were 15,000 American soldiers in the Caribbean Sea, he knew that there was a threat every day. The guys entered Venezuela, entered the fort and took Maduro away and no one knew that Maduro left. How is it possible to lack respect for the territorial integrity of a country? That doesn’t exist in South America. South America is a territory of peace, we don’t have an atomic bomb,” he said.
Citing the United States, Cuba, Russia and China, as examples, Lula also said that Brazil does not have a preference for relations with any country, but that he will not accept “going back to being a colony for someone to boss us around”.
The president also criticized Trump’s stance, who, according to him, every time he appears on television he brags about having the most powerful army and weapons in the world. Lula said he wanted to pursue politics through peace, dialogue and not accepting impositions from any country.
“I don’t want to wage an armed war with the United States, I don’t want to wage an armed war with Russia, nor with Uruguay, nor with Bolivia. I want to wage war with the power of persuasion, with arguments, with narratives, showing that democracy is unbeatable; that we don’t want to impose ourselves on others, but to share what is good about us”, he defended. “We don’t want any more Cold War, we don’t want any more Gaza,” he added.
MST meeting
The 14th National Meeting of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) ended with an act marking the 42nd anniversary of the MST, celebrated on January 22nd and which was attended by authorities, parliamentarians, representatives of social and trade union movements, as well as supporters of the movement.
The meeting, which began on Monday (19), brought together delegations from all over Brazil, with more than 3 thousand landless workers. During the five days, MST members debated agrarian reform, healthy food production, agroecology, family farming, the current political situation, its challenges and the role of the movement in this context.
In the end, a letter from the movement was delivered to the president. In the text, the MST also criticizes the attempt to prevent the advance of multilateralism and imperialism on the continent, citing the invasion of Venezuela and the attack on the sovereignty of the people.. In the document, the movement warns that actions like this have as their backdrop the “looting” of common natural goods such as oil, minerals, rare earths, waters and forests.
The text also reaffirms the principles of the movement: the fight for agrarian reform and socialism; criticism of the agribusiness model, mineral and energy exploration; the anti-imperialist struggle and internationalism; in addition to solidarity, especially with Venezuela, Palestine, Haiti and Cuba.
“Thus, we call on the entire Brazilian society to: – fight for better living and working conditions and in defense of peace and sovereignty against wars and military bases; advance the fight in defense of nature and against pesticides. We count on the participation of everyone who supports us and the working class to join in the fight for Popular Agrarian Reform, towards the construction of another country project”, concludes the document.
