The Palácio do Planalto reported this Tuesday (13) that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a call from the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. In this call, the Canadian expressed his support for Brazil’s initiative in defense of democracy and transparency in the electoral process in Venezuela, whose results that allowed Nicolás Maduro to be re-elected for a new term are contested by the opposition and several countries.

According to Planalto, Lula said that “there is a history of mistakes on the part of the international community towards this country, citing in particular the imposition of sanctions and the recognition of Juan Guaidó as president.” In 2019, the then president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, controlled by the opposition, declared himself president of the country, with the support of part of the international community, which, in practice, never came to fruition.

During his conversation with Trudeau, the Brazilian president highlighted the coordination efforts of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to normalize the political situation in the neighboring country. “The most important thing is to keep South America free from conflict, in prosperity and harmony,” Lula said, according to Planalto, stressing the importance of dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition. The three countries have worked together to demand the public disclosure of the results of each of the 30,000 polling stations for the presidential election in Venezuela. Another request is that the authorities exercise “prudence and moderation” in relation to the protests that have been taking place in the country since the end of the elections.

In a social media post about the phone call, Justin Trudeau defended the verification of Venezuela’s election results. “Canada’s position is clear: election results must be legitimized by credible verification and must reflect the will of the Venezuelan people,” the prime minister said.

Lula also invited Trudeau to a meeting of democratic governments against extremism, which will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September in New York. The initiative comes from the Brazilian president and the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.