In defence of Lula and Democracy in Brazil

Brazilian Democratic State and rule of Law have been violated in a systemic and permanent way since the Coup d’état applied on President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, with an undeniable participation from the judiciary and media.

Since then, facts of major gravity threaten to establish an anti-democratic and repressive regime in Brazil, beginning with a radical politicization of Judiciary, keeping arrested or sued citizens without proved guilty or proofs for the accusation, basing judiciary decisions merely on plea bargains and magistrate “convictions”. These prisons also happened before the defense exhausted all the appealing instances and resources, on a clear violation of the Brazilian Constitution 5th Article, which guarantees the presumption of innocence until the final and conclusive condemn.

The latest victim of these arbitrary acts is former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, convicted and arrested by the alleged possession of an apartment that never belonged to him, and had been even the object of a pledge to pay other people’s debts ordered by the Judiciary. As Lula is innocent, his prison is primarily political and part of the Coup, aiming to impede him from running the next elections to the presidency of Republic.

Besides all of this, the illegitimate government that usurped power in Brazil is adopting a series of measures to reduce popular projection over the State, by expanding a program of privatizations, which includes the Pre-Salt oil reservoirs; selling national goods to international capital, including lands; threatening to take away the State control over the Central Bank; interfering over the autonomy of universities and extinguishing fundamental rights; as well as violating Workers Union’s freedom.

The installed arbitrariness is followed by a series by violation of essential constitutional guarantees as basic civil, political and social rights in Brazil, as well as the resurgence of human rights violations by increasing extermination of African descendant population in the periphery of our cities, the illegitimate government initiatives to dismiss fight against slavery at our country, the constant criminalisation of social movements, and the increasing of murders of rural workers, native and quilombolas in rural areas, producing, at 2017 alone, at least 70 victims.

Political violence and impunity also grew, as demonstrated by Rio de Janeiro city-counsellor, Marielle Franco, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, vicious executions, crimes without solution until now, beside the shooting both on Lula’s caravans trough South states and the recently to the camping on solidarity to Lula at Curitiba, leaving two people wounded.

Given this situation, a group of national entities and personalities created the “International Committee of Solidarity in Defence of Lula and Democracy in Brazil”; because we understand that struggle to overcome this situation requires support from personalities representing the political and social environment from other countries.

The Committee has a broad and plural participation to reinforce initiatives existing in Brazil and abroad defending democracy restoration for our country, the right of Lula to a fair and just trial, the existence of free and democratic elections and the unquestionable right for the Brazilian people to elect the leadership they understand are from their greatest interest. The tools we have available for this at the time, in addition to the formation of the Committee itself and the launching of this site, is the increase in the signatures of the Manifesto: Election without Lula is Fraud (www.change.org/lula) and the proposal of the Nobel Peace Prize for Lula (https://www.change.org/nobelparalula), in addition to replicating the creation of Solidarity Committees as those already existing in some countries.

Institutions