Lula da Silva proposed visit Hugo Chavez in Havana

[Judi Lynn]

(Google translation)

Posted on Wednesday, 01.30.13
Lula da Silva proposed visit Hugo Chavez in Havana
Agence France Presse

HAVANA - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Siva attended Tuesday in Havana by Cuban edition release of the book The last soldiers of the Cold War , his compatriot Fernando Morais, about five Cuban agents imprisoned in the United States since 1998.

~snip~
Former Brazilian leftist president, who arrived Monday night to Havana on Wednesday will give a lecture-meeting is not the issue-said, and will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro.

According to the Brazilian press, Lula also plans to visit Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, with whom he built a strong relationship when he was president of Brazil, who is convalescing in a hospital in Havana for his fourth operation for cancer.

More:
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/01/29/1395707/ex-presidente-brasileno-lula-en.html#storylink=cpy

[Bacchus4.0]

1. any more info on this? It would make a great photo op n/t

s

[Peace Patriot]

2. Thanks for the info on Lula. He's been quiet lately...

...or, we don't get any reporting on him in the northern press. I've seen nothing. I mean, I know he's retired as president of Brazil but, still, he's a VERY important leader and his views and activities deserve coverage here. And I have been wondering, a) about HIS health, and b) why he hadn't shown up among the leaders who have visited Chavez in his convalescence.

I was SO impressed to see the president of Brazil back up the president of Venezuela, when Chavez came under attack by the Bushwhacks! It was a very important learning time for me, about what was really happening in Latin America--the new solidarity, the new unity and cooperation. Lula did this--backed up Chavez--on many issues, and at many important moments. This helped me to evaluate the anti-Chavez propaganda in the corporate press. For instance, Lula at one point said, "They can invent all kinds of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy!" Wow! That was right on target, as to what the corporate propagandists were alleging about Chavez. It's difficult to realize that news sources that we may have relied on in the past--as, if not objective, at least trying to be objective--are LYING, outright bloody lying. I also especially appreciated Lula inviting the president of Iran to Brazil, after Chavez had done so, to Venezuela. TOGETHER they were asserting the right of Latin American countries to their OWN foreign policy!

I KNOW some of these things, from a distance--by reading widely and critically. For instance, I know the facts about Venezuela's election system, which Jimmy Carter recently said "is the best in the world" for honesty and transparency. I had looked into the matter for myself. But it was good to have a figure like Carter--an elections expert--confirm my view. It is not easy to get such facts and it is not easy to evaluate them.

It was the same with Lula's comment about Chavez and democracy. It seemed to me that what was happening in Venezuela was that the poor majority was getting a voice, at long last, and that the Chavez government was designing and implementing a "New Deal" for Venezuela, in obedience to the will of the people. It looked to me--from everything I read (including "reading between the lines" of hostile, anti-Chavez corporate 'news' articles)--that Venezuelan democracy has never been better. Yet the corporate press was saying the opposite--that Chavez is a "dictator." Lula's remark about Chavez and democracy helped me to put this into perspective and confirmed by own evaluation from what information I could get. Here was the president of the biggest, richest country in South America--Brazil--going out of his way to verify Chavez's commitment to democracy. This was not the president of a small country, that may be dependent on aid from Venezuela. This was a quite independent power--and someone who was certainly in a position to know--contradicting all the bullshit about "Chavez the dictator."

The friendship and public accord between Lula and Chavez--besides helping me (and probably many others) to evaluate the anti-Chavez propaganda--is of vast importance to Latin American's independence and to goals of social justice, shared prosperity and economic development, and to the sovereignty of Latin American countries. What these two leaders represented was an historic and phenomenal change--a revolution--for the better, which has meant the first coming of REAL democracy to Latin America. You don't really have a democracy if the people of a country are not its sovereign ruler--if, say, the U.S.-dominated World Bank is dictating your country's economic policy. Democracy and the sovereignty of the people are one and the same, pretty much.

It seems contradictory to say that Latin American countries are achieving sovereignty by unity and cooperation between countries and their leaders, but that is exactly what is happening, and they NEED it to happen that way, because the U.S. is such an over-powering bully. Countries have to band together to achieve individual national sovereignty. And their leaders have to be savvy to, and counteract, "divide and conquer" tactics--tactics which we have also seen in the corporate media and in U.S. policy, for instance, the corporate media fawning over Lula (and, at one point, Evo Morales/Bolivia, and, recently, José Mujica/Uruguay) while condemning and trying to overthrow Chavez.

The wondrous part is that none of this corporate propaganda and U.S. government bullshit is working. Understanding of it--savviness, smarts--is widespread among LatAm leaders. The first, as I recall, was Nestor Kirchner, president of Argentina (now deceased) who, when the Bushwhacks sent down their dictate that LatAm leaders must "isolate Chavez," replied, "But he's my brother!"

And then Lula took this up, as did others--Lula being the most important and influential of Chavez's allies. Sticking together is their power, and they know it. It's a beautiful thing to see in LatAm after so many centuries of subjugation by the U.S., and lack of unity and purpose among LatAm leaders and these countries' consequent horrible vulnerability to U.S.-sponsored coups and other interference. They are now unified against interference--and even the rightwing leaders seem to understand this. The RW may be playing a double game--appearing to champion their country's sovereignty while selling their people out to transglobal corporations and war profiteers--but at the least they have to pay lip service to sovereignty, and maybe some of them have some genuine feeling about it. It is THE issue in Latin America--and that has been the work of the Left, with leaders like Lula and Chavez pioneering this revolutionary perspective, which encompasses all other issues: social justice, human rights, honest elections, use of resources, public services, public education, labor rights, taxation, banking regulation, health care, you name it. Do "the people" have a right to control their own government?

I'm glad to see that Lula is up and around--he, too, was struck with cancer recently--and his interest in the Cuban Five matter. That is one of a long, long list of U.S. injustices that cry out for remedy.

[naaman fletcher]

4. here's some reporting on him

http://en.mercopress.com/2013/01/09/lula-da-silva-to-be-investigated-over-the-vote-buying-scheme-in-congress

O Estado de Sao Paulo and Folha de Sao Paulo newspapers said the government's chief prosecutor Roberto Gurgel has recommended that the allegations be heard in court after the businessman at the centre of the corruption case, Marcos Valerio, alleged Lula da Silva not only knew about the illegal scheme but received money from it.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Nasty little bit, for someone who changed the course of South American history...

...with brilliance and vision, lived to tell about it and is going around visiting people and giving public speeches.

Gee thanks.

[Bacchus4.0]

6. He is still being investigated. He is not above scrutiny. Brazil isn't Ven where there is no

independent justice system. I liked Lula too but if he engaged in unlawful behavior then he should be held accountable. You don't believe in accountability for leaders you like.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Typical trash, as usual: "Lula’s ‘loot’: not much to look at"

Lula’s ‘loot’: not much to look at
Jan 11, 2013 6:29pm by Joe Leahy

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is facing plenty of pressure these days over allegations he was directly involved in the country’s biggest corruption case, the Mensalão.

Now comes an expose of what are supposedly his properties.

Readers will recall that the one-time leaders of Lula’s Workers’ Party in 2003 and 2004 have been convicted of stealing funds from state-owned enterprises and using them to bribe opposition lawmakers to support the former president’s government in Congress.

Lula himself has always denied any knowledge of the scheme. But now there are growing calls for an investigation into allegations that some of the money from the Mensalão was directed to the former leader himself for his personal use. Again, he has denied the accusations, which came from a businessmen convicted in the case.

So readers will be fascinated to learn then that a hacker has published details of what are purported to be Lula’s assets – in the form of a list of addresses of properties supposedly owned by the politician. This from the Associated Press:

~snip~
Overall, the allegedly ill-begotten assets look like nothing more than those that someone with a normal salary and an inheritance or two thrown in might end up with after a lifetime of work. Think of the estate of your spendthrift old uncle Bob rather than Silvio Berlusconi. Either way, the hacker – who proudly declares “Live the Revolution” – has in fact done defenders of Lula’s cause more good than harm.

More:
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/01/11/lulas-loot-not-much-to-look-at/#axzz2Jd8mI9AW

[naaman fletcher]

11. Yup

Let's hope its not true

[ocpagu]

13. The "businessman" Marcos Valerio, who's accusing Lula...

... is a convicted criminal who has changed his version about what happened in "mensalão" 5 times in 6 years. In 2006, he denied that Lula knew about the corruption scheme. He again confirmed that Lula didn't know about it in 2011. And then, suddenly, he changed his version in 2012, after he was condemned by the Supreme Court, stating that Lula not only knew, but also led the scheme and received millions of reais from it.

The Supreme Court president, Joaquim Barbosa, said himself that "Marcos Valério is not a trustable witness".

Interestingly enough, Mercopress forgot to tell their readers that the chief prosecutor Roberto Gurgel HIMSELF is being investigated by the Public Ministry. His peers, the OTHER federal prosecutors, allege that they have evidences that Gurgel commited perjury in order to protect Carlinhos Cachoeira (remember him?), the chief of Brazilian gambling mafia. Gurgel had received notificiations to investigate Cachoeira and his network of thugs in the Federal and state governments in 2009, but he spent 2 years postponing the investigations for some reason...

Gurgel also received notifications to investigate another illegal scheme which is very, very similar to the "mensalão", which happened in 1998, during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government. Also, he was notified to investigate the vote-buying of the constutional amendment that instituted the reelection. But, in both cases, Gurgel declined to investigate because he saw "no evidences" of corruption. Gurgel is a right-winger with strong links with the opposition to the worker's party in Brazil. He's making political use of his job. That's why HE is being investigated.

Lula had all his personal data publicly revelead by a hacker recently. He's pretty much a regular middle class citizen, living in a small apartment in a middle-class neighborhood in the outskirts of São Paulo. Unthinkable for a Brazilian former president (Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former Washington-Consensus puppet president, for example, after blocking the investigation of the more than 600 corruptions inquiries that were opened against his administration, is living a quite comfortable life in his giant penthouse in the wealthiest district of São Paulo, his farms in Central Brazil and his another penthouse in Paris). Lula is and have always been a man of character and honor. The accusations have no leg to stand on.

[Judi Lynn]

14. There's nothing like a strong dose of truth, ocpagu. Reading your information is priceless.

Some of us most clearly remember your posts regarding Carlinhos Cachoeira and his powerful presence in Brazil.

Hope Brazil will run out of these right-wing, filthy criminals before it runs out of progressive voters!

They are so desperate to grab the power they have resorted to trying to smear the beloved President who transormed so much in Brazil, well after he has left. They appear to feel they have to destroy him in order to attack Dilma, since they are allies.

Hope the truth will simply win over their cheap, filthy schemes and leave them more exposed than ever.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Google translation, Ven. paper: Lula da Silva sent wishes for recovery President Chavez

Lula da Silva sent wishes for recovery President Chavez

The Brazilian president expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan president during his perticipación at the Third Conference for World Equilibrium

AVN January 30, 2013 - 8:09 pm

The Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent wishes for recovery Wednesday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Havana, Cuba, in postoperative care after an operation performed last December. "That positive energy of this meeting Marti can help our dear comrade Chavez to recover, "said Lula da Silva during his speech in the context of the Third Conference for World Equilibrium, held in Cuba as part of the celebration of the birth of José Martí. De Similarly, stressed that carrying a red guayabera to pay tribute and as a gesture of solidarity with the Venezuelan leader. "I did not come with a white guayabera as the Cubans usually use, the goal is to pay tribute to another colleague of ours who has much to do with what is happening in our beloved South America and Latin America, "said Da Silva. Da Silva made ​​a speech after the match in which more than 700 delegates from 41 countries. The main topics on the agenda of the Third Conference for World Equilibrium focused on terrorism, drug trafficking, poverty, violence and discrimination.

http://www.el-nacional.com/mundo/Lula-Silva-recuperacion-presidente-Chavez_0_127789679.html

[Judi Lynn]

9. Another article from today:Lula Da Silva "positive energy sent Chavez and Fidel Castro met"

Google translation:
Lula Da Silva "positive energy sent Chavez and Fidel Castro met"

"That positive energy of this meeting Marti can help our dear comrade Chavez" wanted the former President of Brazil

Thursday, 31.01.2013 | 9:49 pm

BRAZIL. - Former President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva wished that " positive energy "which he attributed to a conference I attended in Havana to help his friend Hugo Chavez , interned on the island since mid-December, to recover and called for "a better and more just world."

"That positive energy of this meeting Marti can help our dear comrade Chavez to recover, "explained Lula yesterday in a speech at the close of that meeting, devoted to Cuban national hero Jose Marti.

Convalescing Chavez in Havana from the cancer complex operation that was performed on 11 December.

In his speech, the former Brazilian president called for a new type of Latin American integration and rejected the U.S. blockade against Cuba applied for over 50 years. " Cuba has a special significance for the region because of the moral force built by its people, "he explained.

More:
http://www.elintransigente.com/notas/2013/1/31/lula-silva-envio-energia-positiva-chavez-reunio-con-fidel-castro-168676.asp

[naaman fletcher]

12. The lula and chavez friendship

The friendship and public accord between Lula and Chavez--besides helping me (and probably many others) to evaluate the anti-Chavez propaganda--is of vast importance to Latin American's independence and to goals of social justice, shared prosperity and economic development, and to the sovereignty of Latin American countries.

Seems kind of surprising then that Lula's in Cuba and apparently didn't visit Chavez.

[Bacchus4.0]

3. Brazil ex-president Silva visits Fidel Castro, relatives of Venezuela's Chavez, in Cuba

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/world/Brazil+expresident+Silva+visits+Fidel+Castro+relatives/7899274/story.html


HAVANA - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's non-profit institute has released a photo of him meeting with retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The picture shows a grey-bearded Castro clad in a black jacket and clasping hands with Silva. The encounter took place Wednesday behind closed doors, and there was no word on what they talked about.

During his Cuba visit, Silva has also toured a port expansion project with President Raul Castro and met with relatives of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

The Lula Institute did not say whether Silva had visited Chavez himself. The Venezuelan president has been convalescing out of sight for more than a month after cancer surgery in Havana.

----------------------
Story has a pic with Lula and Fidel. No photo or indication that Lula met with Chavez even though according to the Ven government, he is doing exercises, writing speeches, signing documents, giving instructions etc.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. Instituto Lula: Lula meets with Chavez daughter, Juau, Chavez doctors

Lula was told Chavez is recuperating well from his surgery. No mention of seeing Chavez.


http://www.institutolula.org/em-cuba-lula-se-encontra-com-filha-de-chavez/

Lula se encontrou nesta quarta-feira (30) com a filha do presidente da Venezuela, Rosa Virginia, o chanceler venezuelano Elias Jaua e médicos da equipe que atende Hugo Chávez em Havana. Eles informaram o ex-presidente que Chávez tem se recuperado bem da cirurgia que fez em dezembro do ano passado.

[ocpagu]

15. In Cuba, Lula hears from doctors that Chávez recovering well from surgery

Former president Lula was yesterday in Cuba to take part in the III World Equilibrium Conference and he enjoyed the occasion to pay a visit to also former-president Fidel Castro.

In his speech at La Habana Convention Center, Lula expressed his will of fast recovery to the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, who's under treatment in Cuba since December 11th, fighting a cancer in the pelvic area.

[...]

According to Lula, the press has no sympathy for Hugo Chávez because the Venezuelan president "talks about socialism and wears red shirts", adding: "the Latin American political and economic elites hate us, not because of our mistakes, but because of our successes"

Translated from Portuguese:
http://maisab.com.br/tvasabranca/inaldosampaio/2013/01/31/lula-em-cuba-visita-fidel-e-defende-hugo-chavez/