Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday warned that countries shouldn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, while also urging world leaders to take stronger action in response to intensifying global conflicts.
The mixed messages came as Lula spoke to the United Nations General Assembly, just before U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the group. Lula criticized external interference in Brazil’s internal affairs, only weeks ahead of his country’s elections.
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“We will not allow the enemies of democracy, whether domestic or foreign, to undermine popular will. Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country,” Lula said. “Nobody will turn us away from this path.”
Lula’s speech comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Brazil. Last year, the U.S. imposed an initial round of tariffs, citing what Trump called a “witch hunt” trial against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest following his conviction for an attempted coup.
Since then, relations between the two countries have become further strained, amid growing allegations of foreign interference in October’s elections in Brazil, in which Lula is seeking a fourth, nonconsecutive presidential term.
His main political rival is Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of the former president.
The Trump administration has publicly backed Bolsonaro. Recently, Trump designated two Brazilian criminal groups, the First Command of the Capital, or PCC, and the Red Command, or CV, as foreign terrorist organizations. Lula rejected the decision, and some analysts and politicians have argued that the move could be intended to interfere in the country’s election by portraying Lula as soft on organized crime.
Speaking to the U.N., Lula said Brazil’s electoral system is “modern and robust” and warned against disinformation campaigns seeking to distort public debate during the campaign, noting that “democracy is once again in jeopardy.”
“Brazil is nobody’s backyard,” he said. “We are once again witnessing external interference in electoral processes.”
Lula said Brazil does not underestimate the challenge of organized crime but “will not outsource the responsibility of defending” its own borders. His remarks Tuesday follow the unveiling last Friday of a pilot plan to expand the federal government’s role in fighting gang violence in Rio de Janeiro.
During his speech, Lula also addressed the Brazilian economy, saying that despite the massive tariffs, the country will break a new export record this year.
Lula started his speech railing against what he called weakness in the U.N.’s actions on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and called for reform of the U.N. Security Council, saying that in 2025 alone the world “will see the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II” with “trillions of dollars financing a new arms race.”
“The U.N. is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war,” Lula said. “Its credibility has never been lower.”
Lula said the U.N. must recover its capacity for dialogue and mediation and that it is time to choose between multilateralism or global fragmentation.
“Concessions to the law of the stronger have surpassed all limits. This is not idealism, but pure realism,” he said. “War is not the continuation of politics by other means; it’s the complete breakdown of politics.”
