Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Received on Friday February 10 by Joe Biden, Brazilian President Lula affirmed that the two leaders “should never again allow” assaults on democracy such as those experienced by the United States in January 2021 and by Brazil in January 2023.

The US president, alongside his guest, acknowledged that democracy was “tested” in both countries on January 6, 2021 when supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol in Washington, DC. and on January 8, 2023 when a crowd won over to former head of state Jair Bolsonaro stormed institutions in Brasilia.

But “democracy won,” said Joe Biden. The two leaders pledged to work together to “strengthen democratic institutions” and “promote respect for human rights”, according to a joint statement issued Friday evening by Washington and Brasilia.

Earlier in the day, in a brief exchange with the press in the Oval Office, before the start of the actual bilateral meeting, Lula sharply criticized his far-right predecessor, currently present in the United States, for having disseminated “false information, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening”.

“It reminds me of something,” replied the American president.

“Bolsonaro is a faithful copy of Trump, it’s like going through the photocopier,” Lula also noted in an interview with CNN, broadcast before his meeting at the White House.

Protecting the Amazon Rainforest

“I’ll tell you one thing: Bolsonaro has no chance of becoming president of Brazil again,” he told the channel, while indicating that he would not seek the extradition of his current rival. in Florida.

“I’m not going to talk to Biden about it because it will depend on Brazilian justice,” he argued.

In the Oval Office, Lula lamented that “Brazil isolated itself for four years.”

He also reiterated his promise to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon rainforest by 2030: “Caring for the Amazon rainforest is caring for the planet, for our own survival.”

Deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 60% in each of Bolsonaro’s years in office (2019-2022).

It continued, but slowed down significantly from Lula’s first month in office.

In January, 167 km² of the largest rainforest on the planet was destroyed, the equivalent of more than 22,000 football fields.

But this is much less than the 430 km² deforested in January 2022, when Jair Bolsonaro was still in power.

The United States has announced its intention to work with Congress to fund programs for the protection and conservation of the Brazilian Amazon, including initial support for the “Amazon Fund”, a multilateral financial mechanism created in 2008 and managed by Brazil to support the fight against deforestation, details the joint press release.

“I talked about the need for rich countries to take their responsibilities to help countries with tropical forests and not just in Brazil,” Lula told reporters earlier.

Lula has relaunched this fund that his predecessor had frozen, and to which Norway and to a lesser extent Germany have contributed so far. Brazil is now looking for other donors.

On Ukraine, a sensitive subject between the United States and Brazil, Lula said during his exchange with the press that he spoke of “the need to create a group of countries that are not involved, nor directly or indirectly, in Russia’s war against Ukraine, so that we have the opportunity to build peace.”

The United States is the big driver of the Western response to Russia, while Brazil has condemned the Russian invasion at the UN but has not adopted economic sanctions against Moscow or sent munitions to Kiev.

The Brazilian president finally invited Joe Biden to visit Brazil, an invitation accepted by the American president, specifies their joint press release.

With AFP