Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | 7:22 p.m.
The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) convened for tomorrow an extraordinary meeting in which it will study “the anti-democratic acts against the headquarters of the three branches of the Brazilian Government” that occurred on Sunday.
The organization explained that the event will start at 10 (12 in Argentina), with the latest events in Brazil as the only item on the agenda.
This Sunday, hundreds of followers of former President Jair Bolsonaro invaded the headquarters of the three State powers in Brasilia: the Planalto Palace, Congress and the Supreme Court of Justice, demanding a coup.
“We condemn the attack on the institutions in Brasilia, which constitutes a reprehensible action and a direct attack on democracy. These actions are inexcusable and of a fascist nature,” Luis Almagro, OAS Secretary General, posted on Twitter that same day.
Several leaders in the region expressed their solidarity with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and requested the intervention of the OAS in this crisis.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, was especially critical of the role of this organization, from which he demanded the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
“It is urgent time for the OAS meeting if it wants to continue to live as an institution and apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” the Colombian president stressed on Sunday.
“We proposed that the inter-American human rights system be strengthened by applying the current norms and expanding the charter to women’s, environmental and collective rights, but the answer is parliamentary coups or violent coups from the extreme right,” added Petro.
Yesterday, during his visit to Chile, he agreed with his partner Gabriel Boric that they would work together with other countries in the region “in multilateral forums and through the mechanisms provided by regional institutions, such as the OAS, in strengthening democracy and the Rule of Law in the region”.
In front of the press, Boric remarked that “there can be no nuances, because these actions are unacceptable and so are complicit silences.”
