Brazil takes (some) distance from Maduro’s Venezuela

President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, during a meeting in Brazil last year. Photo: Rafa Neddermeyer/ Agência Brasil

Brazilian diplomacy on Tuesday expressed “concern” with the upcoming elections in Venezuela. It was the first time that the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration flinched on its stance on the neighboring country — otherwise marked by utmost support for the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Back in October 2023, the Maduro administration pledged to hold free and fair elections. An agreement with the opposition was mediated by Norway and signed in Barbados.

Brazil congratulated Venezuela and the opposition for the agreement at the time, even though the document came months after the country’s leading opposition figure, María Corina Machado, had already been ruled ineligible to run for office by Venezuela’s comptroller general, a Maduro ally.

In Tuesday’s statement, Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it is following the development of the electoral process in Venezuela “with expectation and concern” after new opposition candidate Corina Yoris, who replaced Ms. Machado, found herself unable to register for the ballots.

Without citing Ms. Yoris by name, Brazilian diplomacy said preventing her from running “is not compatible with the Barbados agreements.” The impediment has not “been the subject of any official explanation,” the statement adds.

“Brazil stands ready, together with other members of the international community, to cooperate so that the election announced for July 28 constitutes a firm step towards normalizing political life and strengthening democracy in Venezuela,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote.

Late in January, the U.S. Department of State wrote that the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Ms. Machados’s ineligibility was “inconsistent with the commitment by Nicolás Maduro’s representatives to hold a competitive Venezuelan presidential election in 2024.”

Earlier this month, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva smeared the Venezuelan opposition and compared it to Jair Bolsonaro’s putschism. Lula said Venezuela knows it must hold democratic elections, which he hopes will convince the U.S. to end sanctions against the country — suggesting that any questioning of the results would be a sore loser’s cry.

Mr. Bolsonaro has been accused of plotting a coup in Brazil after losing the 2022 presidential race, the result of which he has never acknowledged. The opposition in Venezuela, meanwhile, has protested a series of elections that have been neither free nor fair, according to multiple international observers.