Lula is marking distance from his Venezuelan and Cuban colleagues. With the
presidential elections scheduled for October, he wants to avoid the “Chavez
factor” and position himself as a centrist. The strategy is working. A
recent survey by Dalafolha gives the incumbent candidate a 49% of vote intention versus 25% for conservative candidate Geraldo Alckmin.
Here goes Lula’s quote taken from O Globo and
translated by Venezuela’s El Universal:
“They do not know what to fabricate and here they go with that story of Chavezism. I will not engage in any Chavezism; firstly, because I am not Chávez, and secondly, because this country is not Venezuela. This is a country with traditional institutions”.
O Globo also quoted Lula paraphrasing the famous Castro quote: “History won’t absolve Castro”.
I've never thought of Lula as anything like Chavez. He was certainly radical when he first ran for office, but apparently realized that being a radical doesn't work when trying to run a country and do well for its people.
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I'm still trying to figure out whether Mercosur is big enough for both of them.
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