Jamil Chad Venezuela celebrates normalization with Brazil; There will be more than 20 leaders at the opening 12/15/2022 04:00

Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela celebrated President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s gesture to restore diplomatic relations between Caracas and Brasilia. in your statements UOL, One of Venezuela’s leading ministers stated that such a gesture is expected from Brazil and that relations will normalize.

“We knew this was going to happen,” said Jorge Arreaza, Venezuelan industry minister and former foreign minister and vice president. At the height of the crisis between Jair Bolsonaro and Nicolás Maduro, Arreaza even suggested that then-Chancellor Ernesto Araújo have a “tea” to calm him down in the face of Brazil’s attacks on Caracas.

About the new phase of his relationship with Lula, Arreaza said “everything will always turn out as it should.” According to him, the Venezuelan embassy has never closed its doors in Brazil.

Who owns it? How Nicolás Maduro might make a possible trip to Brazil has yet to be defined. Their existence was banned by a decision of the Bolsonaro government. Caracas, however, hopes the trip can happen.

In fact, more than 20 international leaders will already be present at the inauguration ceremony, in a clear effort to show the global community and the Lula government an alien seal to Brazilian democracy.

So far, the presidents, heads of state or governments of Germany, Portugal and Spain have been approved.

South America will be almost entirely in his hands. The presidents of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Suriname, Guyana and Uruguay have already confirmed their presence.

Also in Brasília will be the presidents of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea and Zimbabwe, as well as the president of East Timor, the vice president of Panama and the foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Mexico, Palestine and Turkey. But the list will grow in the coming days, including confirmation from the US delegation.

Quietly Brasilia and Caracas began to make money again.

In recent months, even under Bolsonarist rule, trade between Brazil and Venezuela has increased significantly again. In 2019, Brazilian exports to the Venezuelan market amounted to 450 million US dollars. In 2022, by November, the volume had already tripled.

Between 2020 and 2022, Venezuela’s sales to Brazil quadrupled to reach US$320 million.

However, the expansion of trade was silenced by the Planalto Palace, precisely so as not to affect the narrative of using socialism as a weapon of choice in Venezuela.

Sources within Itamaraty noted that in recent months, Bolsonaro’s government has toned down public criticism of Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela, in a gesture interpreted as a result of the rapprochement between President Jair Bolsonaro and Vladimir Putin. , one of the few allies of Caracas.

Since the early days of the current Brazilian government, Venezuela has been the target of constant attacks by Itamaraty, both in human rights organizations and in the UN General Assembly (United Nations). Caracas was used by Bolsonarism as a scarecrow of what Brazil might supposedly become in the event of a left-wing government. Therefore, quoting Maduro was useful as a tool to mobilize the most radical groups of the far-right movement in the country, although the situation in the two countries bears no resemblance.

In international forums, this was reversed in actions such as proposing resolutions against Venezuela and even leaving the boardroom when a Caracas representative spoke.

But since mid-2022, members of the Venezuelan opposition have warned that Brazil is not raising its voice against Maduro. Even as Bolsonaro’s government continues to adopt a strategy of voting in favor of resolutions against Venezuela and condemning the dictatorship in the neighboring country, Brazilian negotiators have signaled to members of the opposition that they will not lead opposition actions or lead efforts. Maduro

For Venezuelan groups that oppose the Maduro regime, the change has to do with Bolsonaro’s recent rapprochement with Putin. It was Moscow that maintained financial and commercial relations with Caracas in the last two years and ensured the economic survival of the Maduro regime.

Sources at Itamaraty do not deny that the relationship with Russia could have an impact. However, they point out that this is not the only factor and that the geopolitical situation itself affects the government’s attitude towards the war in Ukraine. In recent weeks, even the presidency of Joe Biden has taken a new stance and curtailed popular attacks on Caracas, even though Venezuelans were not invited to the Summit of the Americas a week ago. The explanation has a name: oil. Faced with the crisis with Russia, Venezuelan supplies began to attract the attention of western capitals.

The silence about Maduro contradicts Bolsonaro’s speech at the UN in 2019. “Venezuela today is experiencing the oppression of socialism,” said the then Brazilian president. “Socialism is working in Venezuela. Not everyone is poor and free,” he attacked.

“We are working with other countries, including the United States, to restore democracy in Venezuela, but we are also working hard to ensure that other countries in South America do not experience this vile regime.”