BRASILIA: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke by phone with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro about “peace” in South America, the Brazilian presidency said Friday, as fears grow of conflict between Washington and Caracas.
President Donald Trump’s administration accuses Maduro of leading a drug trafficking cartel, and has carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats, seized an oil tanker and slapped sanctions on his relatives.
Lula, one of Latin America’s most influential leaders, had not spoken to fellow leftist Maduro since Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, the results of which Brazil — along with much of the international community — did not recognize.
A source in the Brazilian presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two leaders had a brief conversation last week about “peace in South America and the Caribbean.”
However, the source said there was no intention on Lula’s part to “be a mediator” in the crisis between Washington and Caracas.
Fears are growing of open conflict between the US and Venezuela, after months of a US build-up of warships in the Caribbean and warnings from Trump that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered closed.
Trump told Politico on Monday that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and declined to rule out a US ground invasion of Venezuela.
Maduro says the United States is bent on regime change and wants to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.
He is seeking to boost military recruitments, and the Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday.
Lula, 80, has succeeded in mending his own country’s fraught relations with Washington in recent months, making direct contact with Trump after a long dry spell.
In their latest phone call, Lula said he told Trump: “We do not want war in Latin America.”
According to the Brazilian president’s account, Trump replied: “But I have more weapons, more ships, more bombs.”
Lula spoke to Maduro as risks rise of Venezuela-US conflict
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Lula spoke to Maduro as risks rise of Venezuela-US conflict
- Lula had not spoken to fellow leftist Maduro since Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election
- A source said the two leaders had a brief conversation last week about “peace in South America and the Caribbean“
WHO chief says reasons US gave for withdrawing ‘untrue’
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO
- And in a post on X, Tedros added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue”
GENEVA: The head of the UN’s health agency on Saturday pushed back against Washington’s stated reasons for withdrawing from the World Health Organization, dismissing US criticism of the WHO as “untrue.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that US announcement this week that it had formally withdrawn from the WHO “makes both the US and the world less safe.”
And in a post on X, he added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue.”
He insisted: “WHO has always engaged with the US, and all Member States, with full respect for their sovereignty.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO.
They accused the agency, of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States.”
The WHO has not yet confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect.
- ‘Trashed and tarnished’ -
The two US officials said the WHO had “trashed and tarnished” the United States, and had compromised its independence.
“The reverse is true,” the WHO said in a statement.
“As we do with every Member State, WHO has always sought to engage with the United States in good faith.”
The agency strenuously rejected the accusation from Rubio and Kennedy that its Covid response had “obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures.”
Kennedy also suggested in a video posted to X Friday that the WHO was responsible for “the Americans who died alone in nursing homes (and) the small businesses that were destroyed by reckless mandates” to wear masks and get vaccinated.
The US withdrawal, he insisted, was about “protecting American sovereignty, and putting US public health back in the hands of the American people.”
Tedros warned on X that the statement “contains inaccurate information.”
“Throughout the pandemic, WHO acted quickly, shared all information it had rapidly and transparently with the world, and advised Member States on the basis of the best available evidence,” the agency said.
“WHO recommended the use of masks, vaccines and physical distancing, but at no stage recommended mask mandates, vaccine mandates or lockdowns,” it added.
“We supported sovereign governments to make decisions they believed were in the best interests of their people, but the decisions were theirs.”
- Withdrawal ‘raises issues’ -
The row came as Washington struggled to dislodge itself from the WHO, a year after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to that effect.
The one-year withdrawal process reached completion on Thursday, but Kennedy and Rubio regretted in their statement that the UN health agency had “not approved our withdrawal and, in fact, claims that we owe it compensation.”
WHO has highlighted that when Washington joined the organization in 1948, it reserved the right to withdraw, as long as it gave one year’s notice and had met “its financial obligations to the organization in full for the current fiscal year.”
But Washington has not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, and is behind around $260 million.
“The notification of withdrawal raises issues,” WHO said Saturday, adding that the topic would be examined during WHO’s Executive Board meeting next month and by the annual World Health Assembly meeting in May.
“We hope the US will return to active participation in WHO in the future,” Tedros said Saturday.
“Meanwhile, WHO remains steadfastly committed to working with all countries in pursuit of its core mission and constitutional mandate: the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right for all people.”
