Brazil’s Bolsonaro attacks Lula, Argentina, Venezuela, and communism in political speech

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro lashed out on Friday against leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as Argentina, Venezuela, and communism, in an speech while at a ceremony granting land to peasants.

With his mind already focused on the presidential elections of October 2022, in which he will seek re-election, Bolsonaro condemned Lula’s intention to run again for the Presidency and, without mentioning him by name, alluded to a “thief who wants to be a candidate”.

The allusion to Lula coincided with a new poll released on Friday, according to which the former president would win next year’s elections with 45% of the votes, compared to 37% that Bolsonaro would obtain in a second round; the results are similar to those of other recent polls.

Lula is in a position to be a candidate after a Supreme Court (STF) ruling that annulled sentences of almost 26 years in prison against him and ordered new trials due to conflicts of jurisdiction.

“See what is happening in the world. They know that a bad election can lead the people to disgrace,” said the leader of the Brazilian far-right.

“That’s how it was with (Hugo) Chávez and (Nicolás) Maduro in Venezuela” and “in Argentina, they also made a wrong choice,” he pointed out in clear reference to the current president, Alberto Fernández, also part of the South American left-wing establishment.

“We do not want that for us, but it will depend on what you choose in 2022”, insisted Bolsonaro, who stressed that “communism did not work anywhere in the world, and we do not want it here in Brazil”.

The event was held in a municipality in the state of Maranhão, whose governor is Flavio Dino, a member of Brazil’s Communist Party and who was also the target of criticism from the president.

“They have to have an aversion to communism,” which “only creates equality in hopelessness, hunger, and misery, destroys families and religions,” said Bolsonaro, who assured that in 2022, when new governors will also be elected, “the state of Maranhão will be freed from that plague.”

Bolsonaro again criticized the closures of business activities decided by governors and mayors to contain the contagions of coronavirus, which in Maranhão have been especially harsh; he asserted that “they have no proven scientific effectiveness” and maintained that they are applied to “oppress the people”.

The president did not allude to the health situation in the country, which has almost 445,000 deaths due to Covid-19 and is, according to specialists, on the verge of facing a new wave of the pandemic.