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The Workers' Party (PT) has once again raised the flag of solidarity with Cuba, but the Palace of Planalto seems to be looking the other way. The gap between the activist Lula and the president Lula has never been as evident as it is now.
During the event for the 46th anniversary of the PT in Bahia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denounced the “massacre fueled by U.S. speculation” against Cuba and called for “finding a way to help” the island.
It was a passionate, almost nostalgic speech, which revisited the language of internationalism from the eighties and revived concepts such as "criminal blockade," "revolution," and "sovereignty of the peoples," according to a report by Globovisión.
However, there has not been a single official line released from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Not a diplomatic note, not a message to MINREX, nor a public statement of support. In the corridors of Itamaraty, the issue is handled with caution: Brazil is not willing to expose itself to the sanctions outlined in the new executive order from Donald Trump, which penalizes countries that supply fuel to the Cuban regime.
The contrast is evident. While the PT insists on defending "the Cuban Revolution and its ideals of social justice," the Brazilian government is trying to maintain a pragmatic relationship with Washington and preserve its trade agreements amid the so-called Donroe doctrine, the new framework for hemispheric security promoted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In Havana, the official press celebrates Lula's words as a gesture of support, although in Brazil, the enthusiasm is limited to the more ideologized sectors of the PT, nostalgic for the days of hugs and complicity between dictator Fidel Castro and the former union leader.
Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) desperately promotes every insignificant proclamation of international support, Brazil's actual foreign policy remains characterized by caution, economy, and calculation.
Lula, caught between two waters, thus embodies his own dilemma: a leader who founded a party in the spirit of solidarity with Cuba, but who today, from a position of power, cannot afford to swim against the current of the new regional order.
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