“Poor Petro”: Nicaraguan president lashes out at Colombian and Brazilian leaders

“You’re groveling, Lula,” “Poor Petro,” was how Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega lashed out at his Brazilian counterparts, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, for their positions on the controversial presidential election of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

“The way Lula has behaved in the face of the victory of the legitimate president of Venezuela is shameful“Shameful, repeating the slogans of the Yankees, of the Europeans, of the groveling governments of Latin America,” Ortega said during a virtual summit of heads of state and government of ALBA-TCP.

“You’re crawling too, Lula!“Ortega said. “Lula, if you want the Bolivarian people to respect you, respect the victory of President Nicolás Maduro, and don’t go groveling there,” added Ortega, who also questioned his Colombian counterpart.

“To Petro, what can I say to Petro? Poor Petro, Poor Petro, I see Petro competing with Lula to see who will be the leader to represent the Yankees in Latin America, that’s how I see Petro, because poor Petro doesn’t have the strength that Brazil has. (…) the giant of Latin America,” Ortega added.

Both Brazil and Colombia are leading international efforts to resolve the post-election crisis in Venezuela, which has been marked by allegations of fraud, and have suggested holding a repeat election in Venezuela, a proposal rejected by Chavismo and the opposition.

Lula, a long-time ally of Chavismo, said in a radio interview on August 16 that “Venezuela is living under a very unpleasant regime,” although he does not consider it “a dictatorship,” but rather “a government with an authoritarian bias.”

Maduro was proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE) with 52% of the votes, although almost a month before the election the body has still not published the details of the voting table by table because it says it suffered a “terrorist cyber attack.”

The opposition led by María Corina Machado claims for its part that it has evidence that there was fraud and that its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won.

Following the publication of the results by the pro-CNE, protests broke out that left 27 dead, two of them soldiers, 200 injured and some 2,400 detained, who Maduro calls “terrorists.”

The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), accused of serving the government, validated the results on Thursday, August 22, after accepting an appeal filed by Maduro to “certify” the elections and accused González Urrutia of “contempt,” who is under criminal investigation.