UN human rights committee asks Brazil to let Lula run in election
Source: Al Jazeera
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called for imprisoned former president Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva to be allowed to run as a candidate in October's presidential elections.
The committee, which oversees countries' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, said on Friday that Lula cannot be disqualified from the poll because his legal appeals are still ongoing.
Brazil's Workers Party nominated Lula as their candidate earlier this month, despite his currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption.
The former president is leading the polls by a wide margin. He and his supporters say the charges are politically motivated.
Voters go to the polls on October 7 to pick their next president.
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/human-rights-committee-asks-brazil-lula-run-election-180817143518950.html
Brazil's Luiz "Lula" da Silva. His country's most prominent political prisoner, he currently leads polling by double digits.
Supporters note that no evidence has been produced to subtantiate the charges against da Silva, which were instead based on testimony from a prisoner put under duress.
= new reply since forum marked as read
U.S. withdraws from U.N. Human Rights Council
Tracy Wilkinson
By TRACY WILKINSON
JUN 19, 2018 | 5:00 PM
| WASHINGTON
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-un-humanrights-20180619-story.html
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Lula is the most beloved President in Brazilian history, and the most successful. Supporters have been demonstration continuously since the pro-dictatorship hard right began its public campaign trying to find a way to keep him out of the coming election election. They have battled for decades against any and all attempts to raise the standard of living for all Brazilian people, to bring the masses of deeply disadvantaged, desperately poor people out of their hopeless struggle.
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Brazil’s leftists march for Lula candidacy
Published 2 days ago on 15 August 2018
Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's supporters walk during the Free Lula March in Brasilia, Brazil, August 14, 2018. — Reuters
BRASILIA, Aug 15 — Supporters of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva marched on Brasilia yesterday to support his attempt to take part in presidential elections, despite serving a prison sentence for corruption.
The New York Times published an article by Lula yesterday in which he branded his sentence — which has been confirmed by an appeals court after a trial — as “the latest phase in a slow-motion coup” against Brazil’s left.
The “extreme right wing is seeking to knock me out of the race,” Lula wrote.
More:
https://www.malaymail.com/s/1662569/brazils-leftists-march-for-lula-candidacy
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Here is the creature the hard right fascist element is trying to thrust into the Brazilian Presidency:
Trump of the tropics: the 'dangerous' candidate leading Brazil's presidential race
Jair Bolsonaro has openly cheered dictatorship and publicly insulted women. Now he’s deploying Trump-like tactics in his race for the presidency
Tom Phillips in Boa Vista
Thu 19 Apr 2018 05.00 EDT
Jair Bolsonaro’s disciples had packed the arrivals hall of this far-flung Amazonian airport, united by their contempt for the left and an unbreakable determination to score a selfie with the man they call “the Legend”.
. . .
Many would question that last claim, for Bolsonaro – who has been described as “the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world” and possibly the most repulsive politician on earth – is not known as a fan of the ballot-box.
Since the Pinochet-praising former paratrooper entered politics three decades ago, he has repeatedly called for a return to the kind of military rule Brazil endured until 1985. “I am in favour of a dictatorship,” he boasted during the first of seven terms as a congressman.
Such incendiary remarks were long dismissed as the ravings of a irreverent and irrelevant extremist – as were his equally inflammatory attacks on women, black people, gay people, foreigners and indigenous communities, for which he was last week charged by Brazil’s attorney general with inciting hate speech.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels
Between them, the Coldwarniks, Kissingerites, crass profiteers, and other dinosaurs squatting on our foreign policy and intelligence bodies, they've done immense damage to our interests.
They push us away from the rest of the world not only directly - but indirectly, by promoting the rise of authoritarian disasters like Macri and Temer in their respective countries.
This damages our standing not only in Argentina and Brazil; but internationally, since U.S. support for these presidents isn't lost on the rest of the world.
Getting back to Lula, the president of the tribunal that denied Lula his constitutional excarceration rights (as befitting anyone convicted of a civil crime, but whose conviction is still under appeal), João Gebran Neto, just admitted that he broke the law in order to keep Lula from being able to run for high office (!).
He said that he ignored the law to avoid what he considered "a major error" - i.e. that Lula should go free.
This was reported in Veja ('Look'), a right-wing Brazilian news daily.
These news were definitely not lost on the UN.
Thanks for always taking the time to read and share your considered opinion, Judi. I also enjoyed your take on the China/Argentina story; my guess is that to Xi, governments like Macri (and Trump) must remind him of the crass kleptocracy in China under Chiang Kai Shek in the '30s and '40s.
Chiang, you'll recall, basically ran a narco state at the time based on opium.
The British, who themselves connived in the Chinese and Burmese opium trade, were so aghast by how easily bribed he was, that they had a cute little nickname for him:
Cash My Check. 
