According to foreign media such as Russia Today (RT), on August 4, Brazilian President Lula accused the United States of "having assisted in a coup in Brazil" and condemned the U.S. attempt to threaten economic sanctions against Brazil under the pretext of political issues.

On August 3, local time, Lula made the remarks at a Workers' Party event in Brasilia, stating that Brazil would not accept unequal treatment and would resolutely defend national sovereignty and interests. He pointed out that the U.S. "attempting to impose economic sanctions on us over political issues is unacceptable." The report said that this statement was a response to recent U.S. threats to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian export goods.

Lula added: "I will not forget that they helped stage a coup here." However, he did not explicitly specify whether he was referring to the 1964 CIA-planned military coup "Operation Brother Sam," the 2016 impeachment of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, or the events involving former president Bolsonaro's attempt to overturn the 2022 election results.

Facing the U.S. threats, Lula emphasized that Brazil is no longer economically dependent on the United States and pointed out that Brazil's global trade links are expanding, with a stronger domestic economic foundation. He reiterated his commitment to promoting the reduction of reliance on the U.S. dollar in international trade.

"They want to end multilateralism... restore agreements dominated by major powers over smaller countries," Lula said as an analogy, comparing a small country negotiating alone with the U.S. to a worker negotiating alone with a boss in a factory with 80,000 workers, resulting in an inherently unequal agreement, "you get nothing." He also said, "Brazil has size, position, strategy, and economic interests... we are willing to negotiate, but negotiations must be conducted on an equal basis."

The report mentioned that President Trump linked the threat of imposing tariffs on Brazilian products to the so-called "political persecution" of Bolsonaro, and Washington also imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is handling cases related to Bolsonaro. Previously, Bolsonaro faced criminal charges for allegedly attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election.

Image source: Foreign media

Author: Kong Erjun

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7534637975444079154/

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