HE insulation Nicolás Maduro’s regional government is part of a disturbing past. The Venezuelan president, who has been in power for 10 years, landed in Brasilia on Sunday night and said “a warm welcomeThis Monday he met with his Brazilian colleague, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The official photo shows both of them smiling. opposition to divert internal conflict.
Heads of state visits in Brazil are usually announced well in advance. This was not the case with Maduro. His arrival was kept secret so that it would not become a political issue for Lula. The two countries are trying to normalize bilateral relations, which deteriorated during the four-year government of far-right Jair Bolsonaro. Despite the decline in relations, the trade between the two countries did not stop. The foreign exchange in 2022 was $1.7 billion.
Since Lula’s inauguration on January 1, the map of Latin America has changed drastically, especially with regard to the Venezuelan problem. Bolsonaro not only banned Maduro from entering Brazil. He took the lead with Colombia. ivan the duke the policies of the administration donald trump Those looking for radical changes in Miraflores Palace. Now Brazil intends to contribute to the negotiated solution in Venezuela, which also has Washington’s covert oversight.
Maduro arrived in Brasilia on the presidential plane operated by Conviasa airline. The plane was sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in February 2020. Its use in these new conditions did not go unnoticed.
regional summit
Maduro’s presence in Brazil coincides with advances in talks between his government and the opposition to channel Venezuelan funds frozen in banks in the US, UK, France and Portugal four years ago. deputy announcement Juan Guido as “vice president”Sanctions against Caracas were doubled. It is more than the approximately $3,000 million that must be used to address the serious social consequences of the economic collapse.
Maduro’s decision to leave Venezuela informs about a new political moment in this sense. He avoided attending Gustavo Petro’s inauguration in Colombia last year. He was not in Buenos Aires last January as part of a regional summit. The Venezuelan president had not visited Brazil since his inauguration in 2015. Dilma Rousseff. Maduro will also attend the South American Countries Summit, which will start on May 30 under the leadership of Lula. Brazilian diplomacy said days ago that the meeting would not take any “form”.ideological burden“The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname and Uruguay are invited to the meeting. Peru’s interim president, Dina Boluarte, does not have the power to leave the country from Congress.
One of the first measures Lula took at the beginning of his third presidency, Union of South American Nations (Unasur)is its main supporter. For the Brazilian president, this forum should also help tackle Venezuela’s serious problems. The Brasilia meeting comes a month after nearly 20 countries in Colombia, including the United States, supported lifting sanctions against Caracas if free elections were held in 2024.