Chilean President Gabriel Boric criticized this Tuesday (24) the lack of a joint position to repudiate human rights violations in countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Russia.
The complaint was made at an event to Defend Democracy and Combat Extremism organized by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, on the sidelines of the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations, in New York.
“Human rights violations cannot be judged according to the thinking of the dictator of the day, or of the president who violates them, be it [primeiro-ministro de Israel Benjamin] Netanyahu or Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, whether [Daniel] Ortega in Nicaragua or Vladimir Putin in Russia. Define yourselves as left or right,” complained Boric.
The Chilean president called on progressive countries to adopt a joint position of repudiation of these crimes. “There are certain issues that represent advances in civilization in which we must adopt a unified stance without double standards,” he said.
“Progressive forces find themselves weakened when, faced with certain conflicts, they adopt hesitant stances or adopt positions based on interests and the defense of misunderstood friendships (sic) and political ideologies, instead of principles,” questioned Boric.
The Chilean head of state even mentioned the attack on the Three Powers of the Republic, on January 8th last year, and the invasion of the Capitol in the United States, which he attributed to former presidents Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, respectively.
“The right in many of our countries initially doubted whether or not to condemn these attempts [de golpe de Estado]and when it did, in many places, it was ambiguous,” he said, stating that this sector justified itself on the premise that there was no condemnation of the violation of democracy or human rights by the left.
According to Boric, the left “does not have the same rod to judge” those who are supposed to be on its side. “This happened a lot to us in Latin America and it hurt us a lot. We talked a lot about this with President Lula, how the Venezuelanization or the Venezuela issue really hurt the growth of the left,” he said.
This is not the first time that Boric has spoken out against the lack of condemnation by countries like Brazil of human rights violations in Venezuela. In May, when President Lula organized and hosted a summit of South American countries in Brasilia, the Chilean was present and openly criticized a statement by the Brazilian that there was a “narrative” against Maduro.
“I respectfully expressed that I disagreed with what President Lula said,” he said, stating that the lack of respect for human rights in Venezuela “is not a narrative construction, it is a reality, it is serious and I had the opportunity to see it in the eyes and in the pain of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are in our homeland.”
At the time, Boric said that countries should not “turn a blind eye” to the violations committed in Venezuela “regardless of the political ideology of the current ruler”.
Allusion to Milei
In his speech on Tuesday in New York, Boric also alluded to Argentine President Javier Milei, without mentioning his name. According to him, political advisor Steve Bannon has managed to ensure that the far-right has a “much greater” coordination than the left, to the point that “presidents go to countries and do not meet with their counterparts, but meet with far-right leaders.”
Milei was in both Brazil and Spain and did not meet with the countries’ leaders, but rather with local right-wing leaders. “I’m not saying we should behave like them, we are not like them, but we need to have greater coordination,” said Boric, who proposed a summit of “progressive” leaders and parties in Chile.
This content was originally published in Boric criticizes the left for not repudiating human rights violations by Maduro, Ortega and Putin on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
