Credit Reuters Diego Vara.
Geneva 28 march 2018. On Tuesday, former Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election campaign busses were hit by gunfire in the state of Paranà during his campaign tour. The attack follows a week of hostility by fascist groups against his convoy with no adequate response by the police.
Valter Sanches, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary says: “We call on the Brazilian authorities to investigate and punish the perpetrators of these criminal attacks and to ensure normalcy and peace in the exercise of the political process, so that Brazil can resume a democratic coexistence.”
Attacks on democracy are escalating in Brazil: ranging from the systematic sabotage of the presidential election in 2014 to the parliamentary coup d’état against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. There have been attacks on social programs and the fundamental rights of workers. Brazil’s judiciary is seeking to prosecute former President Lula without any evidence, in relation to the corruption investigation into state-oil company Petrobras.
Global Unions defend former president Lula’s constitutional right to prove his innocence by appealing the convictions by the lower courts, as well as to uphold his constitutional right to free movement, to speak out freely and to run for the next presidential election.
.