On Tuesday (7), Brazilian grassroots movements sent a letter to President Lula restating their support for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's inauguration. In the document, the groups ask the Brazilian government to “recognize the legitimacy” of Maduro’s re-election for a third term.
The text was signed by the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST, in Portuguese), the Popular Brazil Movement, the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD, in Portuguese) and 16 other groups. They also call for Brazilian foreign relations to comply with the principle of “national integration” in the region and the opening of an “honest dialog” with Latin American countries.
“The principles of sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, enshrined in the 1988 Federal Constitution and the United Nations Charter, guide our independent foreign policy, an important achievement of our nation under your [Lula’s] leadership. Recognizing this election not only reaffirms our commitment to respecting Venezuelan sovereignty, but also strengthens the bonds of friendship and cooperation that have historically united the two nations,” it reads.
The groups also recall attack plans by the far right that have been demobilized by the Venezuelan government in recent months. Since January 2023, the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office has denounced a series of plots to “promote chaos and destabilization” in the South American country.
The letter was also addressed to the Brazilian government's special advisor for foreign affairs, Celso Amorim, and concludes by stating that by recognizing Maduro's victory, the Brazilian government is sending a message of support for “regional peace and stability," promoting the “strengthening of Latin American integration at a time of huge global challenges."
This is the second document Brazilian grassroots movements sent to the country’s government asking for recognition of Maduro's victory. On December 28, grassroots organizations also sent a document to Lula calling for respect for the Venezuelan election results.
Relations between Brazil and Venezuela
The Brazilian government will send its ambassador in Caracas, Glivânia Maria de Oliveira, to the inauguration ceremony of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The two countries have been going through a diplomatic crisis in recent months, which began with the Venezuelan electoral race. The Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE, in Portuguese) was due to send two observers to monitor the election, but withdrew after Maduro claimed that the Brazilian electronic voting machines “are not auditable.” Instead of observers, the Brazilian government sent to Caracas its special advisor, Celso Amorim, during the elections.
Maduro was elected for a third term with 51.97% of the votes against 43.18% for the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. The Venezuelan opposition contested the result and claimed to have collected more than 80% of the copies of the electoral minutes and, according to the right-wing coalition Plataforma Unitaria, this would guarantee Urrutia's victory.
This fact, coupled with reports of a hacker attack on Venezuela's electoral system, led Maduro to call for a court investigation. The electoral body delayed the release of the detailed results on the grounds of hacker activity. The Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ, in Spanish) investigated the alleged attacks, collected all the electoral material from the body and heard 9 of the 10 candidates who contested the ballot. Only Edmundo González Urrutia was absent.
The Brazilian government has begun to work with Colombia and Mexico to mediate the Venezuelan electoral issue. The three governments issued two joint statements calling for the publication of electoral minutes by the CNE and not by the Venezuelan courts. The Venezuelan Supreme Court validated Maduro's election and asked for the disaggregated results to be published within 30 days. However, more than three months after the election, the results have still not been published and the electoral body's website is still down.
Lula then oscillated between calling for the situation to be resolved internally, suggesting that new elections be held and saying that he would not recognize Maduro's victory if the minutes were not published and, with this, his victory at the polls was independently verified.
Venezuela and Brazil's relationship stabilized briefly until the BRICS summit, held in Kazan, Russia, from 22 to 24 October. At the summit, the Venezuelan government had hoped to be welcomed into the group as a “partner state”, but was left off the list of 13 new members by a veto from Brazil. Itamaraty's – Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – decision outraged Venezuelans.
Lula's government did not explain publicly the reason for the veto and he did not attend the event, deciding to send his foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, to lead the delegation. Caracas claims that the decision was a “stab in the back” and that the Brazilian government's “meddling” measure is a way of interfering in local politics.
At a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, Amorim stressed that Venezuelans should solve the ballot issue and that Brazil does not recognize Maduro's election until the public sharing of the disaggregated results. Amorim did not clearly explain the veto in the BRICS. First, he said that it is necessary to be a country with influence and that represents the region, something that, for him, Venezuela does not fulfill. Secondly, he mentioned the unease between the Brazilian and Venezuelan governments.
Responding to the special advisor's remarks, the Venezuelan government recalled the Venezuelan ambassador to Brazil, Manuel Vadell, for consultations. In a statement, Caracas said that the measure was taken after Amorim's “interventionist and crude” statements. The Venezuelan Chancellery also recalled Brazil's chargé d'affaires to Caracas to express its “rejection” of the statements made by representatives of the Brazilian government regarding the country's electoral process.
The diplomatic crisis was slightly eased after Lula said he respected Venezuelan institutions. According to Maduro, it was "wise” of the Brazilian president to say it and declared “Point in favor of Lula”.
Edited by: Leandro Melito
