Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Monday (5), alongside his Chilean counterpart Gabriel Boric, that being different is extraordinary. The statement came after disagreements between the two leaders regarding the crisis in Venezuela. The declaration was made to the press in Santiago at the Palacio de La Moneda, after a meeting between the heads of state and representatives of both governments.
Lula also spoke to Boric about Brazil's initiative with Colombia and Mexico to seek a diplomatic solution to the impasse in the Venezuelan election. The president also said that his commitment is to peace. The statement, in an institutional tone, was made in the official speech of the president. The tone of the Brazilian was distinct from the one adopted last week when he said he saw "nothing abnormal" in the contested election marked by a lack of transparency.
"Each country has its culture, each country has its interests, its political nuances. We cannot want everyone to say the same thing, think the same thing, we are not the same. We are different and that is extraordinary because the difference allows us to find our similarities, the things that help us," Lula said, without directly mentioning the crisis in Venezuela.
The statement about countries not being the same came at the end of his speech, at a moment when the Brazilian president was no longer reading from the script. Earlier, Lula spoke directly about Venezuela. "I explained the initiatives that I have undertaken with Presidents Gustavo Petro [Colombia] and López Obrador [Mexico] regarding the political process in Venezuela. Respect for tolerance, respect for popular sovereignty is what drives us to defend the transparency of the results," he said. "The commitment to peace is what leads us to call on the parties to dialogue and promote understanding between the government and the opposition," he added. This is the first mention by the Brazilian president about the Venezuelan crisis after last week's statement, in which he minimized the crisis.