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News > Latin America

250,000 Sign Petition to Grant Brazil's Lula Nobel Peace Prize

  • Supporters of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hoist a banner in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, April 14, 2018.

    Supporters of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hoist a banner in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, April 14, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 27 April 2018
Opinion

"If a national government becomes a global example in the fight against poverty, it deserves recognition for its contribution to peace," Esquivel said.

More than 247,000 people have so far signed a petition to grant former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a Nobel Peace Prize.

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The petition to grant the former president, Workers' Party (PT) founder and presidential candidate a Nobel prize is led by Nobel winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, an Argentine activist who was imprisoned and tortured by Argentina's military dictatorship.

"Many of us believe that the Nobel Peace Prize for Lula da Silva would help strengthen hope to be able to continue constructing a new beginning of dignity in the tree of life," Perez Esquivel said.

In a letter addressed to the Nobel committee in Norway, Perez Esquivel outlines Lula's contributions to reducing poverty and hunger in Brazil.

"Through this letter, I want to present before this committee the candidature of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of the Federal Republic of Brazil between 2003 and 2010 for the Nobel Peace Prize," the letter reads.

"Through his social, political and unified commitment, he developed public policies to overcome hunger and poverty in his country, one of the most structurally unequal in the world.

"As you well know, peace is not only an absence of war, nor is it avoiding the death of one or many people. Peace is also to bring hope of a future to the people, especially the most vulnerable sectors who are victim of the 'culture of discarding' that Pope Francis speaks of. 

"If a national government becomes a global example in the fight against poverty and inequality, against the structural violence that afflicts us as humanity, it deserves recognition for its contribution to peace."

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Lula is currently in prison in Curitiba having been convicted of corruption. Supporters believe the legal prosecution against Lula is a form of 'lawfare' intended to prevent him from running for president again.

Polls have consistently placed Lula as the most popular presidential hopeful for the coming elections.

Perez Esquivel spoke Thursday at the opening of the international 'I'm For Peace' meeting in Uruguay, branding Brazil undemocratic.

"In Brazil there is not democracy, rather a coup, just like there was in Honduras, in Paraguay, and was there was when they overthrew (former Brazilian president) Dilma Rousseff without any kind of accusation nor concrete facts. 

"There is not any kind of judicial justification for what is happening... they are doing everything possible to prevent that he run in the elections."

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