Presidents Of Brazil

"Brazil is safer and more welcoming today. We have just extended visa exemptions to countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada, and we are currently considering the adoption of similar measures for China and India, among others. With more safety and convenience, we want everyone to be able to visit Brazil, and particularly our Amazon rainforest, with all its vastness and natural beauty. The Amazon is not being destroyed nor consumed by fire, as the media is falsely portraying. Each one of you may check what I am saying. Do not hesitate to visit Brazil. It is way different than the country portrayed in many newspapers and television shows."

"I will not permit my government to be influenced by the markets."

"[Brazil] needs to forget a little about New York, Manhattan, and think about its slums, its suffering people."

"What is modernity? Is it defending foreign interests, or defending interests of our country?"

"It'a an immense joy to be here today. I have received from millions of male and female Brazilians the most important mission of my life. This fact, beyond myself, is a demonstration of the democratic development of our country because for the first time a woman will rule Brazil."

"We cannot rest while Brazilians are going hungry, while families are living in the streets, while poor children are abandoned to their own fates and while crack and crack dens rule."

"If today is Children's Day, yesterday I said that child... the children's day is mother's day, father's day and teachers' day, but is also the day of the animals. Whenever you look at a child, there is always a hidden figure, which is a dog behind, which is something very important."

"There is no more significant geopolitical consequence today than the growing strategic partnership between China and Russia. Ironically, it is precisely the maximum US pressure on Russia and the containment of China that played a key role in bringing the two countries closer together. The economic sanctions stemming from Russia’s annexation of Crimea and now the war in Ukraine are strengthening a new geopolitical pole, and accelerating changes that would only come slowly."

"Minister Dilma Rousseff has a strong personality, a male side in the way in which she stamps her management."

"Any comparison between the military dictatorship and democracy can only come from those who do not value the Brazilian democracy. (...) I am proud to have lied. Lying under torture is not easy. In the face of torture, a person with dignity lies. Enduring torture is very difficult (...) The pain is unbearable; you can not imagine how. I am proud to have lied, because I saved my comrades from the same torture and from death."

"Reality has changed, and we changed with it. However, I never changed sides. I have always been on the side of justice, democracy and social equality."

"From a distance I became more convinced than ever that Almighty God destined us to become a great people."

"Unless we make revolutionary reforms, some day — in some unknown serra — some unknown Fidel Castro will rise up in Brazil."

"Lincoln was one of history's greatest men, but Americans are not like him. He was a lonely exception."

"How can the reality of 600 million Chinese be ignored?"

"Your place is here, in my heart."

"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!""

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."