According to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, overthrown Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro must be tried in his home country and not abroad.
U.S. forces captured Maduro earlier this year in Caracas and brought him to New York, where he is charged with managing a cocaine trafficking organisation, involving international drug cartels.
“Now it is necessary to restore democracy in Venezuela, which is the biggest thing. And I think that if Maduro needs to be tried, he must be tried in his own country, not in other countries,” said Lula in an interview with India Today TV, when he was visiting India on his AI summit.
Brazil could not believe the fact that one head of state is captured by another one, he said, in an English version given by the Indian broadcaster.
TALKS WITH TRUMP
Lula claimed that the people of Brazil involved in crimes and residing in the United States should be prosecuted in Brazil, and he is planning to deliver them to the U.S. President Donald Trump a written project concerning the matter.
Lula also claimed that he would negotiate with Trump on matters to do with organised crime, drug trafficking and rare earth minerals, which he has indicated that he is likely to meet in Washington next month.
Brazil, a country that borders Venezuela to the south, is a powerful neighbouring state in South America in terms of diplomacy.
The politics between Lula and Trump have also improved since the previous year, when the U.S. leader placed tariffs on Brazilian goods because of the way Brazil was treating the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was jailed following the loss of the 2022 elections.
TRADE RELATIONS
Brazil needs to spread its business relations, and cannot rely on the global giants like the United States and China. Lula made the argument, emerging economies should be empowered in their own trade relations.
“We have to reach 30-40 billion dollars of trade (with India) due to the size of our nations and the economy,” he added.
Lula also mentioned that he had urged Brazil and India to trade in their currencies instead of conducting trade using the U.S. dollar.
“It is not something that you can do overnight; it is not a fantasy, but it is something that we have to begin to think over and get some coordination, further discussions,” he said.
The Brazilian president refuted rumours that the BRICS countries, of which Brazil and India belong, would establish a unified currency.
“There is no discussion in BRICS on the establishment of a new currency, the BRICS currency, ” he said.
Last year, Trump alleged that the BRICS group was established to harm the United States and the role of the U.S dollar as the reserve currency in the world, risking levying even bigger tariffs on imports in the group to combat that perceived initiative.
