Curitiba, Parana, Brazil– 4/29/2018 – 8 PM
- Senators Lindbergh Farias (PT-Rio de Janeiro) and Roberto Requião (PMDB-Paraná), and Congressmen Nilto Tatto (PT- São Paulo) and Valdenor Pereira (PT- Bahia) visited the #LulaLivre Vigil today and, at 3 PM, participated in a political act with the Paraná State President of the CUT labor union federation, Regina Cruz, in repudiation of the gunfire attack that took place on Saturday against the activists in the Marisa Leticia camp, with the aim of demanding that security officials identify and punish the fascist criminals.
- An unprecedented protest in support of #LulaLivre will take place tomorrow morning, April 30, with a boat flotilla on the Negro and Solimões Rivers in Amazonas State. There will be a series of activities starting at 7:30 AM (8:30 in Brasilia), culminating in the Lula Livre Boat Caravan. This caravan, which will have dozens of boats, will leave the town of Iranduba at 10 AM and cross the Solimões River to Paciência Island, a location that benefited from the Light for All program during the Lula and Dilma Rousseff governments. The activities have been coordinated by the Iranduba without Fear Committee, with support from State Congressmen Sinésio Campos and José Ricardo (PT-Amazonas), and Waldemir José from Manaus PT organization. Riverine communities will take place in the activities, which will also include an auto procession over the 4km wide Negro River bridge.
- The Process, winner of the Visons du Réel International Documentary Festival, in Nyon, Switzerland and chosen by the public as the 3rd best film in the Panorama Showing at the Berlin Film Festival, directed by Maria Augusta Ramos, will open the Film for Democracy Festival in Curitiba, on Monday, April 30. From April 4-6 the films will be shown in the Marisa Leticia camp near the Federal Police headquarters where the ex-President has been held since April 7. The documentary tells the story of the coup that took down Dilma Rousseff in 2016. The exhibition of the documentary at the #LulaLivre Vigil is a way to join forces and strengthen the struggle for democracy.
- This Sunday Morning, April 29th, in Curitiba, the May 1stGroup, which includes activists from the Northeast, São Paulo and Curitiba, handed out pamphlets on the South Side of Curitiba which denounce Lula’s political imprisonment and call for his freedom, #LulaLivre. During the past three weeks this type of action has spread across Curitiba and through other states across the country.
- Lula’s entire speech at the ABC Metallurgical Workers Union, on April 7, is now available in its entirety in PDF format on the PT website. Download it here: http://www.pt.org.br/baixe-a-integra-do-discurso-historico-de-lula-no-abc/
- For the first time since the re-democratization of Brazil, in 1988, the seven largest union federations will hold their May Day protest together. The protest, in Curitiba, will have the theme, “In Defense of Rights and to Free Lula”. The CUT, Força Sindical, CTB, NCST, UGT, CSB and Intersindical are united for the defense of freedom for ex-President Lula, who has been held as a political prisoner in the Federal Police Headquarters in Curitiba for over 20 days, with the certainty that his election for President in October is the best chance that the working class has to recuperate the rights that have been lost due to the current government, which took power in 2016 through a Parliamentary, Judicial and Media Coup.
- Michele Bachelet, the ex-President of Chile, defended former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, the President deposed by the Coup. In an event in Chile, Bachelet sent a message straight to Brasilia saying that South American nations should respect the ballot box. In a speech in National Congress this Sunday she defended democracy and said, “there is a key principal everywhere, called the ballot box, where the people’s sovereignty is located. Much love to Lula and Dilma.” PT President, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann also participated in the event, denouncing Lula’s political imprisonment.
Bulletin 55 – People’s Committee for the Defense of Lula and Democracy
Curitiba, Parana, Brazil – 4/29/2018 – 8 PM
Foto: Gibran Mendes
