Venezuela Accuses Brazil’s Lula of Faking Injury To Avoid Kazan Summit and Escape Putin’s and Maduro’s Rage for Vetoing Venezuela and Nicaragua in BRICS
Latin American left is in turmoil. Consider these three data points from the last few days:
First, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the eve of the BRICS summit, declared that he would not be participating in November’s G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – as you can read in Putin To Sit out Next Month’s Rio G-20 Meeting ‘Not To Become a Distraction’.
Putin has an ‘arrest warrant’ against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), that is a supranational tribunal not recognized by the US or Russia or China.
Brazil, as a small-minded upstart regional power, is part of the ICC, and while President Lula da Silva is a close ally with Putin, he was not willing to pay the political price of ignoring the ‘court’.
In the Putin announcement there is some criticism to Lula, when the says that a bilateral agreement could have been reached to circumvent the ICC.
The second data point is that, immediately after the Putin announcement, Lula da Silva had a ‘domestic accident’ and was counselled by doctors not to fly to Kazan, Russia for the BRICS summit.
In Brazil the rumors started that Lula would be faking or else exaggerating the issue to escape Putin’s anger with basically being disinvited to the G20.
So Brazil was represented by the Foreign Affairs minister and played a very minor part in an event dominated by Russia, China and India – until it surfaced that Brazil had vetoed the entry in the BRICS groups of both Venezuela and Nicaragua.
[One for the sham of a Presidential election, the other for persecution of Catholic Priests in the country]
That’s a stunning turn of events that divided the Latin American leftist network in a big way.
So, now, in the third data point to consider, we have a furious top level Venezuelan official airing the same rumors about Lula’s ‘accident’.
While he presented no evidence, the Prosecutor General of the Public Ministry of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, said yesterday (26) that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ‘manipulated’ his head injury before the Kazan summit to escape the consequence of vetoing the entry of the government of Nicolás Maduro in the BRICS group.
Saab, who about a month ago accused Lula da Silva of being a CIA agent, and said that the Brazilian president ‘should be investigated’.
CNN Brazil reported (translated from the Portuguese):
“’Direct sources close to Brazil inform me that President Lula da Silva manipulated an alleged accident to use him as an alibi in order not to participate in the recent BRICS Summit’, wrote the [Prosecutor] general, in a text signed by him, on the account of the Public Prosecutor’s Office on social networks.”
Saab said that the ‘accident’ that prevented Lula from traveling was a lie to evade ‘his responsibility to President Putin, the other presidents present and, in particular, President Maduro’.
The prosecutor general showed a video of the first public appearance by Lula where he shows officials the scar his head.
“But for Saab, Lula ‘reappearing smiling and unharmed, makes it clear that he used that ’accident’ to lie to Brazil, to the BRICS and to the whole world, a fact for which he should be investigated’.”
So the rumor got a shot in the arm with the Venezuelan official’s rant.
“The [prosecutor] general also said that there is a ‘great malaise in the Latin American left’ for what he described as an ‘undignified and nefarious performance’ by the Brazilian government in ‘vetoing and cowardly attacking Venezuela’. Saab accused Lula of following ‘in an obedient manner the instructions of the historical enemies’ of the Venezuelan people.”
As for Russian President Vladimir Putin, he stated at the end-of-BRICS-Summit press conference, commenting on Brasilia’s rejection of the results of July’s presidential elections in Venezuela and subsequent vote against its participation in the BRICS group.
Sputnik International reported:
“’We know Brazil’s stance. Our positions do not coincide with Brazil on matters [related to] Venezuela. I’m saying that openly. We’ve spoken about that on the phone the day before yesterday with the president of Brazil. I have very good and I believe friendly relations [with him]. Venezuela is fighting for its independence – for its sovereignty’, Putin said.”
Read more:
BRICS Day 1: Russia’s Putin, India’s Modi and China’s Xi Are Rocking the Multipolar World (VIDEOS)
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