By João Marcelo
SAO PAULO – Former President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers’ Party (PT), said in an interview with CNN International that he asked Joe Biden, President of the USA, for an emergency meeting of the G20, a group of the 20 largest economies in the world , to discuss the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 to Brazil and to poorer countries, which are facing difficulties in vaccinating the population.
Lula was convicted in 2017 because of the investigations of Operation Lava Jato, meanwhile the sentences of the 13th Federal Court against him were overturned on the 8th, by Minister Edson Fachin, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The minister’s decision made Lula again eligible for the 2022 elections.
In the interview, the ex-president admitted that he can run in 2022 and criticized Jair Bolsonaro’s inefficiency in combating the pandemic. “If we had a president who respected the population, we would have created a crisis committee to guide Brazilian society in what to do every week,” added Lula.
Regarding vaccines, Lula says he knows that the United States has a surplus of vaccines and that he will plead with Joe Biden to donate these immunizers to Brazil and other poorer countries. “I know that the United States has too many vaccines and that not all of these vaccines will be used. And perhaps this vaccine, who knows, may be donated to Brazil or other countries, even poorer than Brazil, who cannot afford to pay for this vaccine, “said Lula.
The government’s Secretariat of Communication (Secom) released, on Thursday morning, a summary of an old letter from the President of the United States, Joe Biden. In the letter, the American president would have promised President Jair Bolsonaro “close collaboration with the Brazilian government in this new chapter of the bilateral relationship”. The letter also includes the desire to collaborate in combating the coronavirus pandemic. The message revealed this week was sent to the Brazilian president on February 26.