Dilma Rousseff Asks Union Workers in Spain for Support to Free Lula

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called Spanish political parties, unions, and civil society to support the release of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; and accused Brazil’s current government of manipulating the truth.

“Lula is innocent. In this democracy, the first victim is the truth,” said Dilma Rousseff during her participation in the commemorations of the 130th anniversary of the General Workers Union (UGT) in Madrid, where she led a demonstration of support for Lula.

Dilma Rousseff thanked the support of UGT and its secretary-general, Pepe Álvarez, who has scheduled, on October 10th, a visit to Lula in prison.

The former Brazilian President reiterated that President Jair Bolsonaro participated in a coup d’état in disguise, in the face of a possible return of Lula to power, even though “there were no army tanks on the streets.” Bolsonaro’s coup d’état was made with “progressive attacks on democracy, the judicial system, and the parliamentary system,” Rousseff explained.

“We are facing a different pattern of coup d’état, with another form and another action,” she said, warning that Brazil is witnessing the emerging of a neo-fascism and neoliberal agendas.

Rousseff also accused the current government of not protecting the rights of workers and of dedicating itself to “hard” labor reforms and “privatization” of public companies.

According to Dilma Rousseff, Bolsonaro wants to sell Petrobras, a company that, in her opinion, is “the jewel in Brazil’s crown,” since it has managed to produce its own technology to extract high-quality oil, stressing that this happened during her term and that of Lula.

Rousseff also accused Bolsonaro of “deliberately destroying” the Amazon to “sell wood” and recalled that “Brazil without the Amazon is not Brazil.”

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo admitted that the Madrid government is “concerned about the progress of extreme right-wing speeches in all countries of the world and also in Brazil.” Carmen Calvo wished the former President of Brazil “much luck and encouragement for the work she does in her country.”

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