Cuba Condemns Parliamentary Coup in Brazil

Cuba has strongly condemned the parliamentary coup in Brazil, and reaffirmed its firm support for the people, the legitimate government of that country and the president, Dilma Rousseff.

A Foreign Ministry statement stated that the attack on Rousseff, is based on allegations that have no evidence or legal grounds. It is also an attack on Brazilian democracy and against a legitimate government elected at the polls by a majority vote.

The statement adds that the parliamentary coup has been denounced by the president herself, the former president and leader of the Workers Party, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and numerous leaders of the Brazilian left.

The statement goes on to recall that since 2003, when Rousseff took charge of the first Workers Party government, important social programs have been implemented in Brazil, highly impacting the disadvantaged population.

According to the World Bank, 25 million Brazilians are no longer living in poverty owing to a number of programs, while the country has become an influential international actor, a defender of just causes and a promoter of Latin American and Caribbean unity and integration.

The opposition seeks to close the cycle of the Workers Party being elected, and with this put an end to social gains achieved by the Brazilian people, says the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cuba.

The opposition seeks to put in place a neoliberal government that will allow the looting of the natural resources by large transnational corporations, in particular Brazil's vast reserves of oil, minerals, water and biodiversity. They also wish to subject its foreign policy to imperialist hegemonic interests, it adds.

The statement further denounces the coup against Brazilian democracy and says that it is part of the reactionary counter-offensive being led by oligarchy and imperialism against Latin American integration and progressive processes in the region.

It ends by saying that this reactionary counter-offensive is also leveled against the countries of the so-called BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which are a set of powerful economies that have challenged the hegemony of the US dollar.