_Straight from Curitiba – 4/7/2019 – 366 days of resistance – 9:25 PM_
1. On this Sunday, April 7th, on the one-year anniversary of his arbitrary imprisonment, based on a manipulated trial with political and ideological bias, ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva released a letter to the Brazilian people in which he denounced the legal persecution against him. “Exactly one year ago today I was arrested for the crime of dedicating my entire life to building a more just, developed and sovereign Brazil,” he wrote. He finished the letter with, “We are alive and strong. Together we will reverse every setback, every step backwards in the hard path towards the Brazil that we dream about, that we proved is possible to build.” The letter was read out loud in the Lula Livre Vigil to thousands of activists by PT President, Congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann (Paraná). Read the whole letter here: https://pt.org.br/um-ano-de-
2. In Curitiba, Paraná, this Sunday thousands of people painted the streets red in solidarity with Lula against his arbitrary imprisonment. The Lula Livre Southern Caravan, which started last Friday in Porto Alegre and passed through Florianopolis on Saturday, finished its trajectory today at the Lula Livre Vigil, where thousands of people united around a single cause: fighting for freedom for the former President and giving the nation back to its people. Fernando Haddad, who was PT’s candidate in the 2018 Presidential elections, condemned the coup against democracy made by the elites and their allies in the judiciary: “These elites managed to put one of the worst Brazilians in the presidency and the best Brazilian in the Federal Police headquarters,” he said. Read more here: https://pt.org.br/milhares-de-
3. In an article published this Sunday in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper entitled, “Why is there so much fear of a free Lula?”, the former President speaks of his arbitrary imprisonment, which was decreed by the ex-judge Sergio Moro, who gave up the judiciary and became a politician, and challenged anyone to show any proof of any irregularity that he committed. Lula, in reference to the powers that conspired to convict him arbitrarily, wrote, “They know that my freedom is an important part of the return to democracy in Brazil. But they are incapable of coexisting with a democratic process.” Read the article here: https://pt.org.br/artigo-de-
4. Dozens of protesters with signs in defense of freedom for ex-President Lula met this Sunday on the terrace of the Trocadero in Paris. The protest was organized by the Committed for Solidarity with Lula, comprised by the PT Nucleus in Paris, The Independent Workers Party, Insubmissive France, the French Communist Party and various Latin American left collectives. The parliamentarian and leader of Insubmissive France, Jean Luc Mélenchon, gave a speech denouncing the arbitrary imprisonment of Lula and said that the corrupts ones are those who “put Lula in prison, and the judge who, after convicting him, became the Minister of the pretense of Justice for the neofascist president.” Read more here: http://br.rfi.fr/franca/
5. As happened in dozens of Brazilian cities and in another 20 countries, there were protests today, April 7th, in the United States in defense of freedom for Lula, organized by Defend Democracy in Brazil. In New York, there was a demonstration on Union Square and a march to Washington Square, after the launching, on April 6th, of the Lula Livre USA Committee and an event organized by the People’s Forum of New York and five collectives of Brazilians abroad, with participation of specialists, some via SKYPE, including Lula’s defense lawyer Valeska Martins and the journalist Breno Altman. The writer, radio journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal participated via audio, speaking in favor of freedom for Lula directly from prison, where he passed 30 years on death row in Philadelphia and 7 years serving a life sentence for a crime that was never proven that he committed. During the protest, one of the signs said, “conviction without proof equals a corrupt judiciary.” The Lula Livre USA Committee’s manifesto can be read here: http://freelula.us
6. Today, in Geneva, in front of the UN office, hundreds of protestors demanded freedom fro Lula. Watch video here: https://pt.org.br/assista-
7. In an article published in the Pagina 12 newspaper in Argentina, former Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim defended freedom for Lula and said he should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Read the article here: https://pt.org.br/celso-
Bulletin 412 – People’s Committee in Defense of Lula and Democracy
_Straight from Curitiba – 4/7/2019 – 366 days of resistance – 9:25 PM_
