_Curitiba,Paraná, Brazil – 5/9/2018 – 10 PM_
1. The Unified Federation of Petroleum Workers (FUP) brought heavy reinforcements to the #LulaLivre Vigil today, parking a huge trailer bus beside Olga Benário corner, in front of the Federal Police headquarters building in Curitiba where ex-President Lula is being held as a political prisoner. The bus will serve as a meeting space, rest area and bathroom facility for people who are at the vigil. The FUP was planning to set up other portable structures on the street but was barred by the Mayor’s Office, according to its Communications Secretary, Gerson Castellano.
2. The arrival of the FUP vehicle corresponded with the launching, in Brasilia, of the “Petroleum is Brazilian” campaign by the Mixed Parliamentary Fronts in Defense of Petrobras and National Sovereignty. It is a movement that was created to coordinate an organized reaction of different sectors of society with the goal of annulling or impeding anti-national acts by the illegitimate Michel Temer government, which has been delivering Petroleum from the offshore pre-salt reserves and Petrobras stock to foreign interests at far below market rates.
3. The organizations that comprise the #LulaLivre Vigil and the Marisa Leticia camp are requesting that contributions to the maintenance of the Vigil and the camp be made exclusively through its website, https://vigilialulalivre.pt.org.br/cli/#/ . Any other donations requested through methods such as bank deposits are not recognized by the Lula Livre Vigil. This, therefore, does not authorize any contributions that are not made through official channels.
4. This week a special guest is visiting the Lula Livre Vigil. Author Perly Cipriano, 74, has been in Curitiba since Monday. A friend of Lula since the 1970s, the Espirito Santo native launched his new book “Pequenas Historias da cadeia e Teias de Solidariedade”, at the Vigil. The book tells the story of the time he spent in a Federal Prison during the Military Dictatorship. The writer was preparing to start a hunger strike when he was surprised by a visit from the union leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who visited him in prison to show solidarity and offer support to a man he had never met before. As soon as he got out of jail, Cipriano helped found the PT party in Espirito Santo state. He has never forgotten Lula. “This is why I am here,” he says, “Even though I can’t enter the prison, my heart is with Lula.”
5- During a world-wide encounter of workers from the Multinational Corporation John Deere today in Moline Illinois, USA, with representatives from Brazil, Spain, Finland, Germany and the US, there was a protest in defense of freedom for Lula and against his arbitrary imprisonment decreed by Judge Sergio Moro. The workers held up photos and signs in defense of #LulaLivre.
*Bulletin 70 – People’s Committee for the Defense of Lula and Democracy*
