Maduro and Lula criticized the US sanctions towards Venezuela

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva on Monday attacked US sanctions towards Venezuela and Maduro stated he hoped a South American regional summit in Brasilia would name for his or her exclusion.

Lula known as the US sanctions “extraordinarily extreme” and criticized america for denying the legitimacy of his leftist compatriot Maduro, whom Washington considers an authoritarian chief who has not allowed free elections.

Maduro was on his first go to to Brazil since 2015, benefiting from warming ties earlier than 11 South American presidents meet in Brasilia on Tuesday.

The Venezuelan president additionally stated his nation needs to be a part of the BRICS group of main rising international locations, which Lula stated he would personally choose.

Former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro banned Maduro from getting into Brazil when he took workplace in 2019, a measure Lula lifted when he returned to energy this yr.

“We live in a historic second… It’s laborious to consider that so a few years have handed with out dialogue with a neighbor with whom we share the Amazon,” Lula instructed a joint information convention.

Brazilian officers stated that among the many points on their agenda is the massive debt that Venezuela has launched with the Brazilian Nationwide Growth Financial institution. They added that Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad is about to satisfy with Maduro and Lula, and the pinnacle of state oil firm Petrobras, Jean-Paul Pratis.

Lula stated he argued with america and fellow social democrats about Maduro’s legitimacy and the “900 punishments” going through Venezuela. “I believe it’s actually absurd that they deny that Maduro is the president of Venezuela,” he stated.

The presidents of South America, all however Peru, will talk about the launch of a cooperation bloc instead of the dissolved UNASUR, which was created in 2008 in the course of the earlier presidency of Lula with the leftist leaders of the time of Venezuela and Argentina, Hugo Chavez and. Christina Kirchner, respectively.

The group foundered when a number of international locations in South America elected right-wing governments, inflicting diplomatic rifts on the continent.

(Reporting) By Anthony Bodel, Lisandra Paraguaso and Gabriel Araujo; Enhancing by Nick Zieminski and Grant McCall

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