Ortega calls Lula ‘withdrawn’ at virtual ALBA summit – DW – 08/27/2024

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Monday (26/08/2024) that relations with Brazil were severed, describing his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as a “drag” who wants to be “the Yankees’ representative” in Latin America.

During a virtual summit with the heads of state of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA), Ortega questioned Lula about his critical stance on the controversial outcome of the July 28 election, which gave President Nicolás Maduro 51.9% of the vote compared to 43.2% for opposition candidate Edmundo González.

The Sandinista leader said Lula was one of the Latin American presidents who had a “brutal” and “cowardly” reaction to not recognizing Maduro’s victory, and that he was part of “submissive, treacherous and dragged governments.”

“It’s a government that presented itself as very progressive and very revolutionary. Now that elections have to be repeated (in Venezuela), Brazil is saying so, Lula,” he said, reproachfully.

Ortega said Lula “shamefully repeats the slogans of the Yankees, the Europeans, and the drifting governments of Latin America.”

Ortega Lula: “You’re pulling”

“You’re crawling too, Lula! You’re crawling, Lula!” shouted Ortega, who also criticized the Brazilian president’s previous government administration.

He noted that in his first administration, corruption “riots” erupted such as the “Lava Jato scandals.”

He continued: “Remember all that well (…). It was clearly not a very clear and very clean government. Remember me and Lola, we can mention dozens of other things.”

He added: “If you want me to respect you, respect me, Lula. If you want the Bolivarian people to respect you, respect the victory of President Nicolás Maduro and don’t get carried away.”

On August 8, the Brazilian ambassador to Nicaragua, Breno de Souza Brasil Dias da Costa, left the country after being expelled by the Ortega government, according to the official account, for not attending the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19.

In response, the Brazilian government decided to expel Nicaraguan Ambassador Fulvia Castro.

In another part of his speech, Ortega offered the “Sandinista fighters” to go and fight for Venezuela in the event of “intervention” from Colombia.

“There are (in Colombia) Yankee military bases, and therefore, we do not rule out, because imperialism today is more wounded than ever by this victory (in Venezuela), we do not rule out the organization of an armed counterrevolution, like the one organized by “For Us” during the first Sandinista government.

The Nicaraguan president commented that he does not see Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “feeding” this potential “mercenary army,” but he does see other former rulers, including Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Ivan Duque (2018-2022).

A (efe, AFP, El Nacional)