COMMENTARY Brazil's president once steered between left and right. Likening Venezuela's democratic opposition to Russia's Ukraine invasion suggests he's crashed.
There was a time when Brazilian President Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva disguised his leftist hypocrisy more artfully.
A time when he wouldn鈥檛 have disgracefully compared Venezuela鈥檚 democratic opposition to the monstrous Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he did this week.
When I interviewed Lula in 2008, during his first presidency, he seemed to understand that apologizing too loudly for dictatorial left-wing regimes like Cuba and Venezuela wasn鈥檛 the best advertisement for the 鈥渢hird way鈥� persona he was selling in those days. When I brought up his efforts to broker rapprochement between right-wing U.S. President George W. Bush and left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Ch谩vez, Lula joked that he found their clash 鈥渧ery weird.鈥� But he didn鈥檛 scurry down the tiresome leftist rabbit hole of blaming it all on demonic Uncle Sam.
This week, though, Lula burrowed into that hole with one of Elon Musk鈥檚 tunneling rigs.
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At Argentina鈥檚 Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires, during the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit, Lula was asked about Nicol谩s Maduro, Venezuela鈥檚 socialist dictator-president. Maduro didn鈥檛 attend the Buenos Aires gathering because Argentina鈥檚 opposition leaders threatened to call for his arrest. Maduro, you鈥檒l recall, is under indictment in the U.S. for drug trafficking 鈥� his military is considered its own narco-cartel 鈥� and the U.N. has slammed his regime for crimes against humanity.
This was Lula鈥檚 opportunity to show us he could still drive down that alternative third lane between the unhinged right-wingers and left-wingers who鈥檝e had a chokehold on the western hemisphere in recent years.
But Lula choked.
Lula's Buenos Aires performance wasn't just an aging lefty using double standards to defend an outlaw fraternity brother. It was full-on hypocrisy 鈥� and insulted democracy in two hemispheres.
He could have acknowledged 鈥� or at least could have acknowledged what almost 60 other nations acknowledge 鈥� that Maduro鈥檚 2018 re-election was a rape of Venezuela鈥檚 constitution. He chose instead to lash out at the man who, as a result of that illegitimate 2018 vote, had a legitimate constitutional claim to the presidency: then National Assembly leader Juan Guaid贸.
In his gravelly, former chainsmoker鈥檚 voice, Lula called Guaid贸鈥檚 2019 declaration of himself as Venezuela鈥檚 interim president, with U.S. and international backing, 鈥渁bominable for democracy.鈥� And Maduro? A guy even fellow leftist Michelle Bachelet, Chile鈥檚 former president, repeatedly condemned when she was the U.N.鈥檚 human rights chief? Well, a scolding Lula told us, Maduro鈥檚 a democratic avatar who needs to be treated with 鈥�carinho.鈥� Affection.
Bloodlust Invasion
Lula then made it clear this display was worse than just an aging lefty using worn-out double standards to defend an outlaw fraternity brother. Still referring to the Guaid贸 issue, he said, 鈥淛ust as I鈥檓 against Russia鈥檚 territorial occupation attempt in Ukraine, I鈥檓 against so much intervention and interference in Venezuela.鈥�
In one dumb, fell swoop, Lula managed to heap not carinho but insulto on democracy, in not one but two hemispheres.
In the Americas, wittingly or not, he likened a genuinely democratic struggle in neighboring Venezuela to Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin鈥檚 crazed bloodlust invasion of neighboring Ukraine. And in Europe, he ended up trivializing the suffering of Ukrainians 鈥� made more nightmarish this week by Putin鈥檚 new bombardment offensive 鈥� by suggesting their pain is somehow also Maduro鈥檚.
Yes, I'm well aware what Lula鈥檚 subtext was. Because Guaid贸鈥檚 move was most enthusiastically backed by Washington, in particular by former President Donald Trump, Lula considers it simply an extension of the U.S.鈥檚 shameful history of intervention in Latin America. But while I鈥檓 usually the last guy on earth to defend Trump, the astonishing irony here is that, at least in the case of Guaid贸, MAGA Man understood the Venezuelan situation far better than Lula does.
That鈥檚 the first thing that makes Lula鈥檚 Maduro mollycoddling so distressing. It discredits him as a potential arbitrator 鈥� the kind he played to some success between Ch谩vez and Bush II 鈥� in the renewed democratic reform talks between Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition.
But here鈥檚 the second, more dismaying residue from Lula鈥檚 full-frontal hypocrisy in Buenos Aires this week. His dreadful parallel between Guaid贸 and Putin suggests there鈥檚 not as much democracy-defending space as we thought between him and the fascist-friendly ogre he defeated in Brazil鈥檚 October presidential election: former President Jair Bolsonaro 鈥� who considers the country鈥檚 brutal 1964-85 military dictatorship a halcyon epoch to imitate.
Lula, in his second presidency, apparently isn鈥檛 all that concerned about disguising that contradiction anymore.
