Brazil’s Lula slams ‘interference’ in previously colonized countries, without naming Trump

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized what he called the return of a colonial approach toward developing nations during a summit in Colombia on Saturday, pointing to the disposal of ex-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and the fuel blockade of Cuba.

"It's not possible for someone to think that they own other countries," Lula said, in an apparent reference to U.S. policy in the region, at a high-level forum with delegates from Africa and a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. "What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?"

The left-wing president also criticized the war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28 and drew a parallel with the Iraq War. "Iran has been invaded under the pretext that Iran was building a nuclear bomb. Where are Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons? Where are they? Who found them?"

Lula said that all countries present had already experienced being plundered for gold, silver, diamonds and minerals. He accused an unspecified "they" of seeking to own developing countries' critical minerals and rare earth deposits.

"After taking everything we had, now they want to own the critical minerals and rare earths that we have," Lula said. "They want to colonize us again."

Washington's history of intervention in Latin America goes back a long way - to when President James Monroe claimed the hemisphere as part of the U.S. sphere of influence more than 200 years ago.

While large-scale, overt U.S. involvement in the region mostly petered out after the Cold War, Trump has rekindled the legacy.

Since assuming office last year, Trump launched boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean, ordered a naval blockade on Venezuelan oil exports and got involved in electoral politics in Honduras and Argentina.

And in Brazil, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods last year, citing a 'witch hunt' trial against the country's former president Jair Bolsonaro. The U.S. has also shown keen interest in Brazil's rare earth deposits.

Then, on Jan. 3, U.S. forces captured Venezuelan strongman leader Nicolás Maduro, flying him to the U.S. to face drug and weapons charges.

While such actions have thrilled right-wing leaders across the continent, they have raised fears among left-wing politicians who have voiced grave concerns over what they see as U.S. bullying.

"We cannot allow anyone to interfere and violate the territorial integrity of each country," Lula said Saturday.

Lula, who has said he will run for a fourth, nonconsecutive term in the upcoming October elections, also criticized the United Nations' inability to stop multiple conflicts around the world.

"What we are witnessing is the total and absolute failure of the United Nations," said Lula, pointing to the situations in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran and once again calling for reform of the body's Security Council.

The Security Council is mandated in the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, but it has failed in major conflicts because of the veto power of five permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the world in 2026, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all been unsuccessful.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has designated a " priority target," echoed Lula's condemnation of the United Nations.

The body "is acting in impotence, and that is not what it was created for. It was created after World War II precisely to prevent wars. And yet, what we have today is war," Petro said.

But the world needs the United Nations to provide climate solutions and curb global warming, Petro said. "The more serious humanity's problems become, the fewer tools we have for collective action. And that path leads only to barbarism."

Petro accused U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of defending Western civilization and urged him to instead pursue dialogue.

Relatively few presidents and prime ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean attended the summit in Colombia, a sign of the continent's deep divisions.

Those present included the presidents of Brazil, Uruguay, Burundi and Colombia, as well as the prime ministers of Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, along with deputy ministers, foreign ministers, and ambassadors.