Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday he had been “scared” by Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro’s warning of a “bloodbath” if he loses elections on Sunday.
“Maduro has to learn: if you win, you stay [in power]. If you lose, you go. And you prepare to contest another election,” said the leftist icon, back in office since last year after serving two previous terms until 2010.
On Saturday, Maduro had warned the vote’s outcome would decide the future of the economically devastated country: “whether it becomes a peaceful Venezuela or a convulsed, violent and conflict-ridden Venezuela. Peace or war.”
And days earlier, he said Venezuela risks a “bloodbath” if he loses.
“Venezuela’s fate in the 21st century depends on our victory on July 28. If they do not want Venezuela to become a bloodbath, a fratricidal civil war produced by the fascists, let us guarantee the greatest success, the greatest electoral victory of our people,” he said at a campaign event in Caracas.
Institutions loyal to 61-year-old Maduro – in office since 2013 – have barred wildly popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from the race on what she and others dismiss as trumped-up corruption charges.
Others, too, were disqualified or have pulled out, and the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) picked 74-year-old Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a little-known ex-diplomat, as a last-minute figurehead candidate.
Gonzalez Urrutia is far ahead in polls, but observers fear Maduro will never allow him to win.
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Brazil’s President Lula meets with Xi, seeks to expand trade, Chinese investments and talk Ukraine
Brazil’s President Lula meets with Xi, seeks to expand trade, Chinese investments and talk Ukraine
Lula had cultivated close ties with Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez.
But relations between the neighbours were severed under Lula’s far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula’s decision to restore relations with Maduro’s socialist government – accused of human rights violations and trampling on democracy – has drawn criticism from opponents.
Lula said on Monday he had spoken to Maduro twice, and “he knows that the only way for Venezuela to return to normality is for there to be an electoral process respected by all”.
Lula said on Monday his government would send two members of Brazil’s electoral court and his own foreign affairs adviser Celso Amorim to observe Sunday’s balloting.