Lula speaks about looming Guyana-Venezuela tensions

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he follows “with growing concern” the developments pertaining to Essequibo, an oil-rich region of Guyana which President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has claimed.

“If there’s one thing we don’t want in South America, it’s war. We don’t need war, we don’t need conflict,” Lula said.

Lula made his remarks in Rio de Janeiro, during a summit of Mercosur, the trade alliance formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, with Bolivia to join soon.

“Mercosur cannot remain oblivious to this situation,” Lula said. Venezuela was once part of Mercosur but was suspended in late 2016 for failing to meet democratic standards.

The Brazilian president presented his counterparts with a draft Mercosur declaration on what he called the Essequibo “controversy.” Lula added that South America is “a region of peace and cooperation” and that he does not want the issue to “contaminate” regional integration or threaten peace and stability.

Lula suggested that the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, discuss the issue with both parties in his capacity as the current president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). 

Last week, Brazil’s top ambassador for Latin American affairs, Gisela Padovan, said the referendum for Venezuelan citizens to decide whether the country should claim sovereignty over a vast area of Guyana was an “internal affair.”

The referendum was held last Sunday. The National Electoral Council of Venezuela, controlled by the authoritarian government, said that more than 95 percent of voters said “yes” to approving the takeover of Essequibo.

Lula’s position on Venezuela’s claim of Essequibo is similar to his stance on the Russia-Ukraine war. Rather than identifying the unilateral aggressor and calling it to refrain from conflict, he instead chooses to hold both parties equally responsible for finding a peaceful solution.

Lula also talked about Mercosur and the European Union failing to sign a free-trade agreement by the date of the summit in Rio, calling the 2019 draft “unacceptable.” He added that he made an appeal to French President Emmanuel Macron to be “less protectionist,” but that negotiations “did not work out” despite his efforts and it was not possible to strike a deal by the end of Brazil’s rotating presidency of Mercosur, which ends this week.

“Resistance from Europe is still very strong,” Lula said, citing the clauses on government purchases and environmental conditions of agricultural products.

Lula celebrated, however, that the summit attendees will sign a free trade deal between Mercosur and Singapore — currently the seventh-largest destination for Brazilian exports and the second largest in Asia, behind China.

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