BRAZIL: Incoming president welcomes back arch-dictator in new alliance
Incoming Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has rescinded a policy from the outgoing Bolsonaro administration banning Venezuelan totalitarian dictator Nicolás Maduro from entering the country. Lula has reportedly personally invited Maduro, a political ally, to attend his inauguration Sunday as the Left-wing president prepares to assume office, according to Pleno News.
Maduro, who usurped Venezuela’s presidency in 2018, is considered an illegitimate president by over 50 countries, including the US. He is known to have led the Cartel of the Suns, a drug cartel involving Venezuelan officials and terrorist organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). As Venezuela’s foreign minister, Maduro coordinated large-scale cocaine operations with Honduras and, with FARC’s assistance, commissioned the cartel’s own militia.
In March 2020 the Trump administration officially declared Maduro wanted for narcoterrorism and offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest and/or capture. Maduro’s wanted status, and the reward offer, remain in full effect.
According to the US State Department, Maduro is wanted “for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices in violation of Title 21 U.S.C. §§ 960a and 963, and 18 U.S.C. § 924.”
As reported by Amnesty International, a UN Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Venezuela “established there were reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in Venezuela since 2014 and that President Maduro and senior military and ministerial figures ordered or contributed to the crimes documented in its report.”
The decision to restore relations with Maduro, published Friday, was signed by substitute Justice and Public Security Minister Antonio Ramirez Lorenzo and Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Alberto Franco França.
Outgoing Right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro first announced the Maduro ban in 2019 along with 12 other member states of the Lima Group, a coalition formed two years earlier to address the crisis in Venezuela exacerbated by Maduro. The Lima Group’s members banned Maduro from entering their borders after the dictator illegitimately seized the presidency for the second time.
Lula, whose own legitimacy as president is challenged by many Brazilians, has been criticized for refusing to condemn human rights abuses in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, according to Reuters. Adding to the controversy surrounding the incoming president is his own history of corruption for which he spent 580 days in federal prison.
Lula has also praised the Biden administration for easing sanctions on Venezuela and thawing relations with Maduro last year in the hopes of buying oil. The talks were initiated after Biden obstructed American oil production and killed the Keystone XL pipeline. In March, the Biden administration sent a delegation to Caracas to persuade the OPEC-member country to supply the U.S. with oil in exchange for lifted sanctions, placed by President Trump in 2017 due to Maduro's human rights abuses.
