latin-american-leftists

"I won't trade one Brazilian worker for a hundred of these tidy little grandfins."

"In what he says he will be representing me. You can trust him, as if I were myself."

"There goes my Buddha with his indecipherable thoughts."

"It is my duty to state in a solemn declaration to History that I have never been insinuated with any movement or tendency to hurt the law or the institutions. I have always heard categorical statements from the President that he would be an uncompromising defender of legality and democratic institutions. [...] I could never defend a government committed to communism."

"The national memory is treated as garbage."

"The government recognizes the mistakes of the past and apologizes to a man who defended the nation and its people whom we could never have forgiven."

"How long could we hold out? Where would we get the resources and fuel we needed? The handovers in Brazil were already guaranteed to receive the support of the United States. Only the civilians would be the big victims. And these are wonderful people, regardless of their political conviction. I would not have this right. Nor would I want to take on this enormous responsibility, which goes against my personal convictions."

"It is, therefore, understandable that it deeply displeases the conscience of the Brazilian people any form of intervention in an American State, inspired by the allegation of incompatibility with its political regime, to impose on it the practice of the representative system by external coercive means, which take away its democratic character and validity."

"Agrarian reform is not the whim of a government or the program of a party. It is the product of the pressing need of all the peoples of the world..."

"...Our motto, Brazilian workers, is progress with justice, and development with equality..."

"...Fate itself reserved the Presidency for me after the events that are still in the memory of all of us. They were strange events to the will of the people, also strange to my will, because I wasn't even in Brazilian territory, which reserved to me the responsibility of directing the destiny of our homeland. But I assumed the position with humility, asking all the living forces of the country, the men of production and the men of work, those in the cities and in the countryside, to help me overcome the serious difficulties I would have to face..."

"I could not commit the levity of allowing Brazil to be divided."

"the American will overthrow me by phone if he wants to."

""What threatens democracy is hunger, it is misery, it is the disease of those who have no resources to face it. These are the evils that can threaten democracy, but never the people in the public square in the use of their legitimate and democratic rights"."

""...the major objective of Brazilian society is the strengthening of peace. We believe that the ideological conflict between West and East cannot and should not be solved militarily, because if in a nuclear war we saved our lives, we would not be able to save, whether we won or were won, our reason for living"."

""...I will only return to my country through the front door, democratically. My duty, my right is to remain quiet, one day History judges me”"

"It is regrettable that still large parts of the population that have had access to higher education remain insensitive to the national reality."

"The image projected in Veja Magazine about my life in exile, presenting me as a rich landlord, oblivious to the problems of the homeland, does not reflect reality."

"People learn from experience. We have learned that in order to be revolutionaries and advance a revolutionary process, it is necessary to have one's feet on the ground."

"Either you are in favor of human dignity and respect fir human rights, or you are against human rights. There is no their possibility."

"...When we talk about the FSLN, we are not talking about something that is just a political party. We're not talking simply about an armed organization. We are talking about a historic response. We are talking about the indivisible reality of the FSLN and the Nicaraguan people. As long as this people is militant and proud, as long as this people is made up of heroic workers, as long as the workers and peasants and all revolutionaries are ready to defend the national sovereignty arms in hand, as long as there are Nicaraguans who love the land where they were born, as long as this people exists, the FSLN will continue to exist."

"The sons and daughters of this country are not robots, not mannequins. This is a population every day more conscious, more audacious, and more creative. With this heroic population, we will make it to our goal, we will for all the way. With this heroic population that understands the world around it more clearly every day, it will be easier to come up with the right answers to the questions the revolution poses."

"We hate war, and our National Directorate has repeated this many times. We haven't organized the defense of our revolution for the purpose of conquering neighboring territories - or distant ones for that matter. We have done it in order to win peace. Our friends and neighbors can rest assured that this revolution was made in order to defend the land of our birth."

"Our revolution has always been internationalist, ever since Sandino fought in the Segovias. There were internationalists from all over the world who fought alongside Sandino, men from Venezuela, Mexico, Peru. Another who fought alongside Sandino was the great hero of the Salvadoran people named Farabundo Marti. It is not strange that we are internationalists, because this is something we got from Sandino. All the revolutionaries and all the peoples of Latin America especially know that our people's heart is with them, beats alongside theirs. Our heart goes out to Latin America, and we also know that Latin America's heart goes our to the Nicaraguan revolution."

"We are creating a new society in which an individual is not a piece of merchandise, a society in which there are no wolves and lambs, when men do not live off the exploitation of other men. We are struggling to create a society in which the workers are the fundamental power driving things forward, but in which other social sectors also play a role, always insofar as they identify with the interests of the country, with the interests of the great majority"

"From an ethical point of view the price difference is grotesque and from a political point of view, it represents a lack of respect, as though a sick Brazilian is inferior."

"The foundation is in place, and now we have to get to work."

"Brazil is in a solid position. In the past, if the United States sneezed, we caught pneumonia. Today, if the United States sneezes, we sneeze too."

"I am the son of an illiterate father and mother."

"Brazil has rediscovered itself, and this rediscovery is being expressed in its people's enthusiasm and their desire to mobilize to face the huge problems that lie ahead of us."

"Lula’s presidency with its historically diverse cabinet opens the door to progressive change, to challenge the rising global tide of authoritarianism and fascism."

"Toda vez que a gente fala de combater as drogas, possivelmente fosse mais fácil a gente combater os nossos viciados internamente. Os usuários, os usuários são responsáveis pelos traficantes que são vítimas dos usuários também."

"O Brasil condena a invasão da Ucrânia pela Rússia."

"Toda noite me pergunto por que é que todos os países estão obrigados a fazer seu comércio lastreado no dólar. Por que é que nós não podemos fazer o nosso comércio lastreado na nossa moeda? Por que é que nós não temos o compromisso de inovar? Quem é que decidiu que era o dólar a moeda, depois que desapareceu o ouro como paridade?"

"How can the world’s largest economic power say that it has no milk for children after President Biden announced $40 billion to buy arms meant for the war in Ukraine? (During his presidential campaign in 2022) ... Zelensky is as responsible as Putin for the war. Because in the war, there’s not just one person guilty... (in an interview with Time magazine May 2022) If I win the election we will make an effort for dialogue to establish peace again. We are not interested in any type of war (tweeted in August 2022) The only position that interests Brazil in terms of the question of Ukraine and Russia is peace. The time of war is the time of destruction. The world needs peace, addressing the issue of the climate, and ending hunger. (Tweeted in October 2022)"

"[Q:] So Volodomyr Zelensky should have talked to Putin more, even with 100,000 Russian troops at his border? [A:] I don’t know the President of Ukraine. But his behavior is a bit weird. It seems like he’s part of the spectacle. He is on television morning, noon, and night. He is in the U.K. parliament, the German parliament, the French parliament, the Italian parliament, as if he were waging a political campaign. He should be at the negotiating table. [Q:] Can you really say that to Zelensky? He didn’t want a war, it came to him. [A:] He did want war. If he didn’t want war, he would have negotiated a little more. That’s it. I criticized Putin when I was in Mexico City [in March], saying that it was a mistake to invade. But I don’t think anyone is trying to help create peace. People are stimulating hate against Putin. That won’t solve things! We need to reach an agreement. But people are encouraging [the war]. You are encouraging this guy [Zelensky], and then he thinks he is the cherry on your cake. We should be having a serious conversation: "OK, you were a nice comedian. But let us not make war for you to show up on TV." And we should say to Putin: "You have a lot of weapons, but you don’t need to use them on Ukraine. Let’s talk!""

"Does anyone really think the US is going to favour Brazil? [...] Americans think of themselves first, second, third, fourth, fifth – and if there’s any time left over they think about Americans. And these Brazilian lackeys go around thinking the Americans will do anything for us."

"What we can’t have is this country being run governed by a bunch of lunatics. The country doesn’t deserve this and above all the people do not deserve this. Brazil is adrift — so far he doesn’t know what to do."

"Se tem uma coisa que eu me orgulho, neste País, é que não tem uma viva alma mais honesta do que eu. Nem dentro da Polícia Federal, nem dentro do Ministério Público, nem dentro da igreja católica, nem dentro da igreja evangélica. Pode ter igual, mas eu duvido."

"I want to know if the people are in the shit and I want to take the people out of the shit in which they are." – during a speech in São Luís, the capital of the Brazilian state of Maranhão. After recognizing he cursed, he stated: "Of course I cursed. Tomorrow, commentators of the major newspapers will say that Lula cursed, but I'm aware that they curse more than I do everyday, and I'm aware of how the poor people of this country live."

"This is a crisis that was caused by people, white with blue eyes. And before the crisis they looked as if they knew everything about economics."

"A long time ago I learned not to put the blame for backwardness in Brazil on the US. We have to blame ourselves. Our backwardness is caused by an elite which for a century didn't think about the majority and subordinated itself to foreign interests."

"Germany announced on January 25 that it would send tanks to Ukraine, in a significant escalation of the NATO proxy war against Russia. Berlin subsequently asked Brazil to ship tank munitions to Kiev. But newly inaugurated left-wing President Lula da Silva declined to do so. Lula was a co-founder of the BRICS bloc, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. He has long called for a multipolar world, and supports South-South cooperation and regional integration. Lula has denounced Western governments for ramping up the violence in Ukraine instead of encouraging peace negotiations."

"That's my man right there, the most popular politician on earth."

"as I glanced around the table on the summit's second day, I couldn't help but wonder how a larger role for the BRICS in global governance might play out. Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for example, had visited the Oval Office in March, and I'd found him impressive. A grizzled, engaging former labor leader who'd been jailed for protesting the previous military government and then elected in 2002, he had initiated a series of pragmatic reforms that sent Brazil's growth rate soaring, expanded its middle class, and provided housing and education to millions of its poorest citizens. He also reportedly had the scruples of a Tammany Hall boss, and rumors swirled about government cronyism, sweetheart deals, and kickbacks that ran into the billions."

"No individual nation can stand up to the project of corporate globalization on its own. Time and again we have seen that when it comes to the neo-liberal project, the heroes of our times are suddenly diminished. Extraordinary, charismatic men, giants in the opposition, when they seize power and become heads of state, they become powerless on the global stage. I'm thinking here of President Lula of Brazil. Lula was the hero of the World Social Forum (WSF) last year. This year he's busy implementing IMF guidelines, reducing pension benefits, and purging radicals from the Workers' Party."

"If the US is the country that most contributes with greenhouse gases, in the world, it should assume more responsibility to reduce emissions."

"Look, my friend. I don't speak the language here, I've got no money, the food stinks, there's no rice, no beans. I'd rather be arrested in Brazil than stay in this dump of a country."