Lula kicks off UNGA 2023 with a rallying cry for Global South
Sept. 20, 2023
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva kicked off the U.N. General Assembly meeting yesterday with a speech that positions him as a leader of the global south, with calls to address urgent issues such as hunger, inequality and the climate emergency. His call for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba was applauded by the audience, one of several shows of support.
“It knocks on our door, destroys our homes, our cities, our countries, kills, and imposes suffering and losses on our brothers,” said Lula. “It is the vulnerable populations in the Global South who are most affected by the loss and damage caused by climate change.” (UN)
He criticized economic inequality, particularly as related to climate change, and called on wealthy nations keep a the promise to contribute $100 billion to the developing world. (Associated Press)
Lula also attacked the International Monetary Fund for not representing poor countries and the World Trade Organization for not averting increased protectionism in the world, reports Reuters.
Lula said the continued conflict in Ukraine was evidence of the loss of credibility of the U.N. Security Council.
Speaking yesterday, Lula said his electoral victory last year was a triumph of hope over fear, and received applause as he touted the administration’s reductions in deforestation. (Guardian)
You can think of Lula as “a major recording artist, whose been away for years but is now on a seemingly interminable world tour, including all the biggest festivals,” quips the Brazilian Report.
More UNGA
Biden and Lula will meet today in New York, where they will launch the U.S.-Brazil Partnership for Workers’ Rights and are expected to call for improving labor conditions in their countries. (Bloomberg, AFP)
Lula’s chief foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim emphasized the importance of being able to talk to all sides in a world shaped by multiple major powers, in an interview with the Washington Post. “We would like to have a ‘multipolar’ world, but also, as far as possible, a benign multipolar world in which there is competition, but not necessarily confrontation,” Amorim said. In that context, he added, “we consider ourselves very good friends of the United States,” but “we don’t need to agree on everything.”
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei criticized "unnecessary foreign interference" in the electoral process and repeated his commitment to a transfer of power. His speech comes as Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo and members of the international community, including Lula, warn of judicial efforts to overturn the election results in Guatemala. (Reuters, Guardian, see yesterday’s post.)
Argentine President Alberto Fernández used his final address to the UNGA to criticize the IMF, calling on the multilateral lender to stop charging surcharges to indebted countries, reports the BA Times.
U.S. President Joe Biden called on the United Nations Security Council to advance on resolution that will authorize a multilateral force to Haiti in order to support its security forces in a battle against powerful gangs that control most of the capital. U.S. officials had hoped for a Security Council vote on the resolution before the General Assembly, but Beijing put negotiations on hold until after the summit, according to the Miami Herald.
Haiti
In the midst of the spat between the Dominican Republic and Haiti over a canal that would use water from the shared Massacre River, William O’Neill, the U.N. independent expert on human rights for Haiti, pointed to the underlying question of whether the canal is being built properly. Authorities in both countries should share all relevant information in order to achieve a peaceful and quick end to this crisis, O’Neill said. (Miami Herald, see yesterday’s briefs.)
Migration
A group of mostly Haitian migrants burst into a Mexican asylum office in Tapachula on Monday, demanding papers, as appointment times are delayed — often by weeks — amid a record number of asylum requests, reports the Associated Press.
More Brazil
Brazil has its “sights set on an ambitious and comprehensive plan for ecological transformation,” writes Finance Minister Fernando Haddad in the Financial Times: “a comprehensive transformation of our economy and society through greener infrastructure, sustainable agriculture, reforestation, circular economy, increased use of technology in productive processes and climate adaptation.”
Regional
“A series of grenade attacks and threats linked to Venezuelan gangs and extortion in Peru reveal how the use of this weapon has been exported from Venezuela to other Latin American countries,” reports InSight Crime.
Culture Corner
Os Tincoãs, a group from Brazil’s Bahia state known for its beautiful vocal harmonies is having a comeback. “Canto Coral Afrobrasileiro,” an album recorded 40 years ago, has finally been released, reports the New York Times.