Radical leftist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ranted against President Donald Trump’s tariff and deportation policies during an official event Monday, questioning, “Where is democracy? Where is free trade?”
Lula’s rant comes days after President Trump announced the reinstatement of a 25-percent tariff on steel. Brazil is presently the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada.
Lula, in remarks given during his participation at a naval industry event in the southern municipality of Angra dos Reis, accused the United States of posing a “threat to the world every day” and questioned the administration of President Trump — but without directly mentioning his name — over his imposition of tariffs on other countries and a crackdown on illegal migrants.
Lula began his more than four-minute-long rant by stating that the United States behaved as a symbol of democracy after World War II, stressing that “the American Dream is one of the most talked-about things in any American movie.”
“The dream was of a country that gave opportunity to everyone. And it’s a country that its people should be proud of, because there was so much opportunity there,” Lula said. “When it arrived, the United States built a military base to keep an eye on the world. Everywhere you go in the world, you find an American aircraft carrier as if it were taking care of the world. That was the image we had of the United States.”
Lula claimed that the American “dream” was alive until “the other day,” when a new president came and “radically changed the discourse.” Lula, without mentioning President Trump by name, accused him of “destroying” the discourse of the “Washington consensus of 1980, of Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in England.”
Lula said:
That the deal was to open the borders, that the deal was, you know, to have no trade barriers. It was free trade, that we had to buy everything, that there had to be no taxes, that there had to be no obstacles. That was the logic of the Washington consensus. And Brazil accepted it.
The first thing we had to do was wipe out the auto parts industry in this country in the name of the global cars that were being created. It almost destroyed our textile industry. And they went on destroying industry, buying up industry. There were people who bought them to close them down.
Lula asserted that President Trump’s “America for the Americans” policies involve imposing tariffs on “everything that’s imported” and sending away migrants — including those who “helped build that great homeland” and the wealth of the United States. Lula further asserted that Latin Americans went there “to do work that the Americans no longer wanted to do.”
“And then I wonder, where is democracy? Where’s the respect for the free movement of human beings if you have the free movement of capital?” Lula asked. “Where’s the free trade that was so much preached? And then the world starts to be threatened. Every day there’s a threat. Every day there’s a threat, every day there’s something.”
The Brazilian president continued by claiming that Brazil is a country of peace that likes everyone and wants “everyone to like us.” Lula said that in Brazil, instead of a “bite,” he likes to “give a kiss,” but “we’re not going to take any crap.”
Lula continued by claiming that it is true that the United States belongs to the Americans, China to the Chinese, Russia to the Russians, and India to the Indians — but stressed that it is also true that Brazil belongs to the Brazilian people and they have to “respect the things we do here.”
“I’m no greater than anyone else, but I’m no less than anyone else. I just want the right to be equal. I just want the right to be heard. I just want the right for them to respect us as we respect them,” Lula concluded.
The Brazilian president has been highly critical of President Trump’s recent decision to levy a 25-percent tariff on steel imports. Last week, during an interview given to Rádio Clube do Pará, Lula asserted that Brazil does not want friction with anyone nor does it have any international disputes — but if “Trump behaves like this towards Brazil” then Lula will “behave like this towards the United States” and will reciprocate any action Trump takes.
Lula further claimed that Brazil would either “react commercially” to tariffs on steel or bring the matter to the World Trade Organization.
As part of the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on illegal migrants in the United States, two U.S. deportation flights carrying Brazilian illegal migrants have taken place over the past month, the most recent one in early February. As of press time the flights have deported 199 Brazilians.
In late January, Brazilian government officials accused the United States of engaging in alleged “degrading treatment” of deported migrants through the use of handcuffs and ankle restraints — prompting a brief impasse between the countries. According to the Brazilian news outlet G1, the Brazilian deportees who arrived on the second flight had their handcuffs and restraints removed prior to disembarking from the plane.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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