Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened this week’s United Nations General Assembly by claiming that his country “doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard,” criticizing U.S. policies in Latin America without directly naming President Donald Trump.
As per U.N. tradition, Brazil is the first country to speak at the annual U.N. General Assembly in recognition of Brazilian diplomats volunteering to open the first post-World War II session of the event. Lula, who has served as president for three terms over the past two decades and is currently seeking a fourth term, prefaced his speech by pointing out that he has opened the U.N. deliberations ten times since 2003. Lula said that that the organization is at its “most critical” moment right now and its credibility “has never been so low.”
Throughout his speech, Lula criticized the imposition of tariffs in other countries and Latin America’s inability to avoid “the world’s greatest military power” in a context of “resurgent hegemonic temptations,” both criticisms of America without mentioning the U.S. by name.
“Brazil doesn’t fit in anyone’s backyard,” Lula said. “We need partners with a positive agenda that fosters development.”
The Brazilian president also expressed feeling “indignant” towards the United Nations over its failure to end the scourge of war, calling for reforms at the U.N. Security Council, particularly when it comes to the veto rights. Lula denounced that the pillars of multilateralism are being “eroded.” According to Lula, the World Trade Organization (WTO) — which his administration has sought to intervene in Brazil’s trade dispute with the U.S. — is on “life support.”
“When governments capitulate to those who use tariffs as weapons of coercion and blackmail, the consequences are disastrous,” Lula said.
The Brazilian president lamented that the “weakening” of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) “make[s] us all more vulnerable,” noting the response to “climate change” was firmly established as an international agenda until recently — but that it has “vanished” from debates at the G7 and G20 groups.
In an apparent reference to America’s military presence in the region to fight against narco-terrorism, Lula affirmed that his country does not need “aircraft carriers patrolling our waters.” According to Lula, he instead personally proposed cooperation with President Trump to stem the flow of weapons and money that fuel crime.
Referring to the war in Gaza, Lula condemned both sides of the conflict — first, by accusing the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing a “genocide” that “generations of Palestinians will bear the pain and trauma perpetrated by the Netanyahu government against women and children in Gaza.” Afterwards, Lula stated that Israeli civilians have “paid the price for the radicalism and intolerance of Hamas’ terrorist acts.”
“Persecuting the International Criminal Court and its members encourages these crimes to go unpunished,” Lula said. “U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese cannot be silenced for telling the truth. Illegal settlements in the West Bank are making the two-state solution, essential for Israelis and Palestinians to live in safety, increasingly unviable.”
The Brazilian president affirmed that diplomacy is the only option to solve conflicts such as those between Ukraine and Russia and the conflict at the Strait of Hormuz — claiming that initiatives such as Brazil and China’s largely ignored “Friends of Peace” program can work to that end.
Referring to the three authoritarian regimes in Latin America — Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba — Lula stated that the Venezuelan people “deserve to define their own destiny” and that Nicaragua will not solve its problems by preventing the opposition from participating in elections. Notably, Lula’s government imprisoned and banned from running for office his primary presidential rival following the 2022 election, former President Jair Bolsonaro.
He offered no such calls for elections in Cuba, where the communist regime has long denied its people the right to hold free and fair elections. Instead, Lula claimed that the world is “witnessing a collective punishment imposed on ten thousand people for an economic embargo and an illegal energy blockade,” referring to the United States’ pressure campaign on the rogue communists.
Lula also called for the regulation of Big Tech companies and AI, warning that a “handful of techno-oligarchs want to resurrect a version of digital neoliberalism, without rules or transparency.”
The Brazilian president concluded his speech by pointing out that his country will hold general elections on October 4. According to Lula, Brazilians will choose between “democracy and denialism,” deciding whether Brazil will “advance toward a future of more opportunities or regress to a past of exclusion.” Lula affirmed that his country will not allow what he described as the “enemies of democracy, internal and external, to undermine the popular will.”
“Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country,” Lula said. “No one, no one will divert us from this path.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.