López Obrador criticizes that they fabricated crimes and imprisoned Lula

Roberto Garduno, Angeles Cruz and Arturo Sanchez

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, p. eleven

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will receive today at the National Palace the former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

We are very pleased that you visit us. We are very respectful of the countries, we have maintained a good relationship with the Brazilian government, we have not had any differences with President (Jair) Bolsonaro; there has been a relationship of respect and we want to maintain that good relationshipLópez Obrador pointed out yesterday after informing his morning press conference of the meeting he will hold with Lula da Silva.

He referred that there is no formal agenda for this meeting with Lula, because it is not a government-to-government relationship, that is why I speak of respect for the government of Mr. Bolsonaro; this is a meeting, let’s say, of friends and of those of us who are looking for things to change in Latin America and throughout our America and in the world. So he’s coming for breakfast.

López Obrador referred that Lula is a recognized leader, very important in Brazil, in Latin America and, I would say, in the world and that he will receive him “with respect, with admiration, because he was the victim of an authoritarian, repressive act, crimes were fabricated and he was unjustly imprisoned.

So, we have sympathy with Lula and above all with what he represents, that social leaders, political leaders who fight for the people and who sometimes have to confront conservative groups, oligarchies, are not persecuted. So, Lula is welcome.he claimed.

In addition to meeting with López Obrador, Lula da Silva plans to participate in the second Ordinary Assembly of the National Association of Legislators of the 4T in the afternoon and have a meeting with senators tomorrow.

The former president is accompanied on the trip by the president of the Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, former Brazilian ministers Celso Amorim and Aloizio Mercadante – who chairs the Perseu Abramo Foundation – and Senator Humberto Costa.