Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticised what he called the return of a colonial approach toward developing nations during a summit in Colombia on Saturday (March 21, 2026), pointing to the disposal of ex-Venezuelan leaderc and the fuel blockade of Cuba.
“It’s not possible for someone to think that they own other countries,” Mr. Lula said, in an apparent reference to U.S. policy in the region, at a high-level forum with delegates from Africa and a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. “What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticised what he called the return of a colonial approach toward developing nations during a summit in Colombia on Saturday (March 21, 2026), pointing to the disposal of ex-Venezuelan leaderc and the fuel blockade of Cuba.
“It’s not possible for someone to think that they own other countries,” Mr. Lula said, in an apparent reference to U.S. policy in the region, at a high-level forum with delegates from Africa and a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. “What are they doing with Cuba now? What did they do with Venezuela? Is that democratic?”
Mr. Lula said that all countries present had already experienced being plundered for gold, silver, diamonds and minerals. He accused an unspecified “they” of seeking to own developing countries’ critical minerals and rare earth deposits.
After taking everything we had, now they want to own the critical minerals and rare earths that we have,” Mr. Lula said. “They want to colonize us again.”
Washington’s history of intervention in Latin America goes back a long way — to when President James Monroe claimed the hemisphere as part of the U.S. sphere of influence more than 200 years ago.
While large-scale, overt U.S. involvement in the region mostly petered out after the Cold War, Mr. Trump has rekindled the legacy.
There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the world in 2026, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all been unsuccessful.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has designated a “ priority target,” echoed Lula’s condemnation of the United Nations.
But the world needs the United Nations to provide climate solutions and curb global warming, Mr. Petro said. “The more serious humanity’s problems become, the fewer tools we have for collective action. And that path leads only to barbarism.”
Mr. Petro accused U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of defending Western civilization and urged him to instead pursue dialogue.
Relatively few Presidents and Prime Ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean attended the summit in Colombia, a sign of the continent’s deep divisions.
Those present included the presidents of Brazil, Uruguay, Burundi and Colombia, as well as the Prime Ministers of Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, along with deputy ministers, foreign ministers, and ambassadors.
Read More: Brazil: The World’s Environmental Treasure and One of Its Most Vulnerable Victims
