Brazils

April 20 (UPI) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has warned about the deterioration of the international order and the paralysis of the United Nations in a message published on X.

He urged strengthening multilateralism while on an official visit to Germany, where he also promoted the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur.

“It is useless to have one’s house in order in a world that is in disorder. The prevalence of force over law is the greatest threat to international peace and security,” Lula wrote in a message that addresses multiple global conflict hotspots.

Lulu expressed concern over “the risks of a new conflict in Iran” and a possible escalation in Lebanon, as well as the situation in Palestine, where he said that “the survival of the Palestinian state and its people remains under threat.”

He also mentioned the war in Ukraine, noting that “the long-awaited peace remains distant.”

In his message, Lula criticized the lack of international action.

“Between the actions of those who provoke wars and the silence of those who prefer to remain quiet, the United Nations is once again paralyzed,” he said. He added that Brazil and Germany have defended for decades a reform of the Security Council that restores its legitimacy.

“Revitalized multilateralism is the only path to restore diplomacy and cooperation as tools for peace and sustainable development,” he said, and concluded with a broader call: “Humanity must recover the idea that peace is morally necessary and politically possible.”

The message aligns with a series of recent statements by the Brazilian leader on the global order and the role of major powers.

In an interview published Thursday by the Spanish newspaper El País, Lula criticized U.S. President Donald Trump over his rhetoric toward other countries and questioned the use of threats in foreign policy.

“Trump does not have the right to wake up in the morning and threaten a country,” Lula said, also calling for greater responsibility from international leaders to preserve peace.

In the same interview, he defended dialogue as the main diplomatic tool and warned about the risk of global escalation.

“I do not want a war with the United States. I decided to be very patient,” he said, explaining that his government prioritizes negotiation and national interests over ideological differences.

He also questioned the use of tariffs by Washington and said that the arguments to apply measures against Brazil “were not true.”

Lulu already has raised the need to reform international institutions.

“The time has come to redefine the United Nations to give it credibility,” he said, in line with his most recent call on social media.

In Germany, Lulu participated in the opening of the Hannover Industrial Fair alongside Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Both leaders highlighted the free-trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, whose provisional entry into force is scheduled for May 1.

Merz said the agreement “will make all participating economies stronger, more independent and more resilient.” Lula, for his part, presented it as an alternative to unilateralism.

“Mercosur and the European Union chose cooperation,” he said, adding that increased trade will boost employment and investment in both regions.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has described the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as “Lords of War.” He called on them to stop acting like “emperors” and waging war on poorer countries.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered a probe into whether right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro issued defamatory statements about his election rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

On Wednesday, a decision from Justice Alexandre de Moraes was published, allowing the Federal Police to proceed with an investigation into posts Bolsonaro published in January.

Bolsonaro, at the time, responded to news that the United States had abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with insinuations linking Lula to crimes.

“Lula will be exposed,” Bolsonaro posted on the social media platform X, with screenshots of a handcuffed Maduro and an article about Lula.

He then predicted that the left-wing alliance known as the Sao Paulo Forum would collapse in scandal.

“It is the end of the Sao Paulo Forum: international drug and arms trafficking, money laundering, support for terrorists and dictatorships, rigged elections,” Bolsonaro wrote.

There are limitations to the freedom of speech in Brazil, and under its penal code, defamation can be a criminal offence. Prosecutors have the option of seeking heightened penalties for defamation against presidents or heads of state.

The Federal Police have a period of 60 days to carry out their initial investigation.

But in a statement to local media, a spokesperson for Bolsonaro, a senator for Rio de Janeiro, denounced the probe as a violation of his rights.

“The senator limited himself to reporting facts and detailing crimes for which Nicolas Maduro was arrested and is being prosecuted internationally,” the statement said, adding that there was no “direct criminal accusation against” Lula.

Bolsonaro and Lula are currently in a neck-and-neck race for the presidency ahead of October’s general election.

A poll released this week from the research firm Quaest shows Lula slightly ahead in the first round of voting, with 37 percent of the vote compared with Bolsonaro’s 32 percent.

But if the race proceeds to a run-off, the frontrunner flips. Bolsonaro polls slightly ahead in a one-on-one contest against Lula, netting 42 percent support compared with the incumbent’s 40 percent.

The poll has a margin of error of about 2 percent, though, meaning the results are not conclusive. There is also nearly five and a half months until the first round of voting on October 4.

Both Bolsonaro and Lula are well-known quantities in Brazil’s political sphere.

For the 80-year-old Lula, this year’s race will see him run for a fourth term in office. Previously, he served as president from 2003 to 2011, and then he ran again in 2022, defeating Senator Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent president that year.

The elder Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to subvert the results of that election.

The margins were tight in the 2022 run-off, and then-President Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat, instead suggesting that there were “malfunctions” in the electronic voting machines that favoured Lula.

His supporters took to the streets to protest his loss, blockading roads and attacking police headquarters in the capital, Brasilia.

The unrest culminated in an attack on January 8, 2023, against government buildings in the capital, which was seen as an attempt to trigger a military uprising against Lula’s leadership.

Former President Bolsonaro was later convicted in September 2024 of plotting to stay in power, with prosecutors presenting evidence that he and his allies explored options including calling a new election and assassinating Lula.

The former president has denied wrongdoing and accused his adversaries of a political witch-hunt.

In December, his eldest son, Flavio, 44, entered the 2026 presidential race with his father’s endorsement. He has suggested he would seek his father’s freedom as part of his campaign.

Earlier this year, Lula vetoed a bill that would have lowered Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence. He has denounced his predecessor’s actions as a coup attempt.

Brazil’s coach says Neymar could be in contention for the squad if he attains full fitness in the next two months.

Brazil coach Carlo ‌‌Ancelotti has left open the possibility of Neymar Jr earning a ⁠⁠place in his ⁠⁠26-man squad for the FIFA World Cup, saying the forward has two months to prove he has the required ⁠⁠qualities.

Ancelotti has consistently maintained that Neymar will be in contention if he is fully fit, but the attacker was excluded from Brazil’s ⁠⁠squad for last month’s warm-up matches against France and Croatia.

Neymar, Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals, has not played for the national team since suffering a serious knee injury in October 2023 and has struggled ‌‌to maintain a consistent run of matches since returning to Santos last year.

Brazil’s 2-1 defeat to France in Boston prompted fans to chant Neymar’s name, but Ancelotti dismissed the reaction at the time, saying attention should focus on the players selected.

However, the Italian has suggested that the Santos forward remains part of his ⁠⁠thinking as Brazil assess their options in the run-up to ⁠⁠the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to 19 July in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“He’s a great talent, and it’s normal that people think he can help us ⁠⁠win the next World Cup,” Ancelotti said in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe.

“He’s currently being ⁠⁠evaluated by the CBF [Brazilian Football Confederation], by ⁠⁠me, and he still has two months to show that he has the qualities to play in the next World Cup.

“After his knee injury, Neymar has made a good comeback; ‌‌he’s scoring goals. He needs to continue in this direction and improve his fitness. He’s on the right track.”

Brazil are in Group C ‌‌alongside ‌‌Morocco, Haiti and Scotland in the World Cup and will begin their campaign on June 13 in New Jersey.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticised what he called the return of a colonial approach towards developing nations during a summit in Colombia.

But while Lula did not mention United States President Donald Trump in his remarks, he gestured at actions undertaken by the Trump administration, including the January 3 abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and the fuel blockade in Cuba.

“It’s not possible for someone to think that they own other countries,” Lula said, in an apparent reference to US policy.

“What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?”

Lula delivered his remarks at Saturday’s summit for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which featured a high-level forum with delegates from Africa.

He told delegates that their countries had already experienced being plundered for gold, silver, diamonds and minerals.

“After taking everything we had, now they want to own the critical minerals and rare earths that we have,” Lula said, without specifying who “they” might be. “They want to colonise us again.”

The left-wing Brazilian president also criticised the ongoing war launched by the US and Israel against Iran.

He drew a parallel between that conflict, which began on February 28, and the US-led Iraq war, which began in 2003 on the pretext of eliminating “weapons of mass destruction”.

“Iran has been invaded under the pretext that Iran was building a nuclear bomb,” Lula said, before pivoting to the US campaign in Iraq, which resulted in the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“Where are Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons?” Lula asked. “Where are they? Who found them?”

A history of intervention

Washington’s history of intervention in Latin America goes back more than 200 years to when then-President James Monroe claimed the hemisphere as part of the US sphere of influence.

While large-scale, overt US involvement in the region mostly petered out after the Cold War, Trump has rekindled the legacy.

Since assuming office last year, Trump has launched boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean, ordered a naval blockade on Venezuelan oil exports, and gotten involved in electoral politics in Honduras and Argentina.

Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods last year, citing the trial against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, as a motive. The US has also shown keen interest in Brazil’s rare earth deposits.

Then, on January 3, US forces abducted and imprisoned Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, flying him to New York to face drug and weapons charges.

While such actions have thrilled right-wing leaders across the continent, they have raised fears among left-wing politicians, who have voiced grave concerns over what they see as US bullying.

“We cannot allow anyone to interfere and violate the territorial integrity of each country,” Lula said Saturday.

Frustration with the UN

Lula, who has said he will run for a fourth, nonconsecutive term in Brazil’s upcoming October elections, also criticised the United Nations for its inability to stop multiple conflicts around the world.

“What we are witnessing is the total and absolute failure of the United Nations,” he said, pointing to the situations in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran.

He called, once again, for reform of the UN Security Council, which is mandated with ensuring international peace and security. But it has failed to stop major conflicts because of the veto power of its five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council. But they have all been unsuccessful.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom the US Drug Enforcement Administration has designated a “priority target”, echoed Lula’s condemnation of the UN.

The body “is acting in impotence, and that is not what it was created for. It was created after World War II precisely to prevent wars. And yet, what we have today is war,” Petro said at the summit.

But the world needs the UN to provide climate solutions and curb global warming, Petro said.

“The more serious humanity’s problems become, the fewer tools we have for collective action. And that path leads only to barbarism.”

Relatively few presidents and prime ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean attended the summit in Colombia, a sign of the continent’s deep divisions.

Those present included the presidents of Brazil, Uruguay, Burundi and Colombia, as well as the prime ministers of Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, along with deputy ministers, foreign ministers and ambassadors.

President of Brazil Lula de Silva criticised the United States’ aggressive foreign policy under President Trump and called on the UN Security Council to prevent war.

March 13 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized Friday in Brasilia after doctors diagnosed a bacterial lung infection, authorities said, marking the latest health episode for the 70-year-old who is currently serving a prison sentence.

Bolsonaro was admitted to the DF Star hospital with fever, vomiting and low oxygen levels. Doctors later confirmed a case of bacterial pneumonia and began treatment with intravenous antibiotics while keeping him under medical observation.

The former president was transferred to the hospital from detention. Since January, he has been held in the officers’ wing of the 19th Military Police Battalion, known as “Papudinha,” in Brasilia, where he is serving a sentence of 27 years, three months in prison for an attempted coup.

Health issues have been a recurring concern for Bolsonaro since a 2018 assassination attempt during a campaign rally in the southeastern city of Juiz de Fora, where he was stabbed in the abdomen.

The attack caused severe internal injuries and required emergency surgery, forcing him to spend weeks recovering in hospital while continuing his presidential campaign.

Since then, Bolsonaro has undergone several abdominal procedures and has been hospitalized numerous times for intestinal obstructions, infections, hernia repairs and other chronic health problems. Doctors said Friday his condition is stable and that doctors continue to monitor the infection.