Deposed Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff: "I fear for Lula's life."
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff headlined a conference at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair yesterday calling for the release of jailed Brazilian leader Luiz 'Lula' da Silva.
Da Silva, 72, was jailed on April 8 on corruption charges dating from his 2003-11 tenure as President of Brazil. The sentence effectively bars the popular former labor leader from running in this year's presidential elections, which polls show he would win handily.
“I fear for Lula's life,” Rousseff added. “I fear for the food that he eats and the water he drinks, and because they have denied him medical visits.”
Rousseff noted that Brazil's current right-wing regime, mired in single-digit approval and corruption scandals of its own, needs Lula imprisoned “because they lack a candidate capable of winning” the upcoming presidential election.
She likened the move to the parliamentary coup which lead to her own impeachment in 2016.
“Like a military coup, a parliamentary coup supports economic interests, locates enemies and attacks them, while permanently reducing the power of democratic institutions,” she said.
Supporters of Lula da Silva note that no evidence has surfaced to corroborate bribery charges against him. The case was instead based on the testimony of a convicted public works contractor whose sentence was later reduced.
“In Brazil,” Rousseff said, “they used the law to violate the law.”
The event included the presentation of a collection of recent interviews of the jailed populist leader, Lula: The Truth Shall Overcome.
Calling for the release of former Brazilian President Lula da Silva are (front row):
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; former presidents Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), and Ernesto Samper (Colombia); Estela Barnes de Carlotto of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo; and former Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana.
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