Nicolás Maduro’s security personnel attacked journalists at the South American summit in Brasilia

When the president of Venezuela, Niccolo Maduroleft the South American summit in Brasilia Tuesday night, members of the president’s security attacked several press workers they waited with cameras and microphones.

The accidents, in which a reporter from the Globo TV channel and other professionals were beatenstarted when Maduro made statements to a large number of journalists at the entrance of the Itamaraty Palaceheadquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country.

The crowding got out of control when Venezuelan and Brazilian guards pushed some journalists. It was then that the situation escalated and the blows came.

As reported by the Brazilian newspaper O’Globo, “the riot began while Maduro was giving an interview and the security guards tried to prevent journalists from approaching.” It was “in the midst of the confusion that a security guard of the Institutional Security Office struck reporter Delis Ortiz in the chest”, although “other journalists also suffered attacks.

After the episode, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks in an official statement: “The Farnesina deplores the episode in which press professionals were attacked, following the meeting of the presidents of South America. Responsibility will be investigated.”

Maduro was the last of the presidents to leave the headquarters of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, where a summit of South American countries convened by the Brazilian Lula da Silva was held on Tuesday.

The summit was also attended by the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; Bolivia, Luis Arce; Chile, Gabriel Boric; Colombia, Gustavo Petro; Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso; Guyana, Irfaan Ali; Paraguay: Mario Abdo Benitez; Suriname, Chan Santokhi; Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou.

The only one absent was Peruvian president Dina Boluarte, represented by the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola.

Harsh reactions from Lacalle Pou and Gabriel Boric to Lula for supporting Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan regime

The attempt to Lula DaSilva promote regional integration at the summit of South American presidents suffered its first setback left and right when the Uruguayan Louis Lacalle Pou and the Chilean Gabriel Borico they were shown outraged by the Brazilian’s political support for the regime of Venezuelan Nicolás Madurowhich faces serious allegations of human rights violations.

Both Lacalle Pou and Boric responded harshly to Lula, who had described the questioning of the Venezuelan autocracy as “narrative”. With their critical speeches, both have tried to make it clear that they will not blindly endorse a final summit statement -which Lula’s team is promoting- where the problem is avoided and Maduro is legitimized.

“I was surprised to read, in the declaration under negotiation, that what is happening in Venezuela has been discussed as a ‘story’. You know what we think about Venezuela and the Venezuelan government”, launched the Uruguayan president.

“If there are so many groups in the world trying to negotiate so that democracy is full in Venezuela” and “that human rights are respected so that there are no political prisoners, the worst thing we can do is cover the sun with a finger”, remarked Lacalle Pou directly criticizing Lula’s words.

Then it was Boric’s turn, who spoke in the same terms. “We are happy that Venezuela returns to multilateral bodies because we believe that these are spaces where problems are solved and not with declarations in which we attack each other,” he began.

However, he clarified that “this cannot mean sweeping it under the carpet or turning a blind eye to matters that are principled and important to us, and there I respectfully said that I have a disagreement with President Lula. It’s not a narrative construction, it’s a serious reality”, he stressed.

IT​