Cuba's Friend Is Free!!
Cubans were ecstatic Friday {Nov. 8th, 2019} when they learned that 74-year-old Lula da Silva had been released from a Brazilian prison where he had been behind bars for the past year-and-a-half. His supporters, especially his powerful base of poor Brazilians, had camped outside shouting that their hero had "not been defeated yet!" During two terms as president, Lulu was the most popular leader in Brazil's recent history and he was leading the polls heading into last October's presidential election even though he had been sentenced to 12 years in prison, which his supporters blamed on right-wing friends of his lightly regarded prime enemy, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been Brazil's controversial anti-Lulu and anti-Cuban president since October. The right-wing Brazilian government says despite his release from prison Friday, Lulu da Silva will return to prison if his appeals are exhausted.
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Beloved by poor Brazilians, Lula da Silva was twice elected as Brazil's powerful President from January 1, 2003, till January 1, 2011. During those 8 years da Silva was Cuba's fervent foreign supporter.
Unabashedly, Lula da Silva idolized both the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro, who died at age 90 in 2016.
After his two terms as Brazil's President from 2003 till 2011, Lula da Silva's political ally Dilma Rousseff was herself elected Brazil's President for two terms starting in January 1, 2011. But before finishing her second term, Rousseff was booted out of office on August 31, 2016, by what she and her followers still maintain was a "right-wing coup" that used the corruption charges to imprison da Silva and oust Rousseff during as her second term as Brazil's President.
Like Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff idolized the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro. As shown above, even as President of Brazil, Rousseff often flew to Havana to be with Fidel after he became very ill.
After Dilma Rousseff was ousted before finishing her second term as Brazil's President and while her predecessor and former two-term President of Brazil Lula da Silva was being sentenced to 12 years in prison, Cuba's two most important friends in the world in 2016 were shackled in Brazil, by far Latin America's largest and richest nation, at about the same time in the United States Cuba's friend President Barack Obama was being replaced by President Donald Trump, who quickly in 2017 became determined during the past three years to strangled Cuba and finally overthrow Revolutionary Cuba.
The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in November of 2016 and the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil in October of 2018 were drastic, watershed disasters for Cuba. Both Trump and Bolsonaro want to wipe Revolutionary Cuba off the Caribbean and world maps, and the U. S. is the world's strongest nation and Brazil is Latin America's strongest nation. SO CONTRAST, if you will, THAT PRIOR TO TRUMP THAT CUBA HAD A DEAR FRIEND IN OBAMA AND PRIOR TO BOLSONARO BRAZIL HAD LULA DA SILVA AND DILMA ROUSSEFF AS CUBA'S TWO MOST IMPORTANT FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WORLD.