Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president of Brazil, said Thursday that he and ex-President Alvaro Uribe “had a good relationship” but “did not trust one another.”
Da Silva issued his comments during a visit to Colombia. The former president said that there was “a lot of distrust” between him and Uribe when the two were each presidents of their respective states.
The ex-president went on to praise current President Juan Manuel Santos. “I did not want to start my visit without congratulating you on this successful first year in office,” said Da Silva. “Hopefully this will continue for the next four years.”
“I’m sure that President Santos and President Dilma Rousseff (the current president of Brazil) can do much more than President Uribe and I did.”
Uribe was quick to attack from his Twitter account. He accused Da Silva of being a “sore loser” and stated that the Brazilian had been incapable of extraditing the “terrorist Camilo” or of confronting Hugo Chavez in public. “Bravo, because we beat him in his bid with Luis A. Moreno,” added Uribe.
Da Silva expressed the need for unity in Colombia. “I think the lesson that you are giving all of America is that whoever wins an election with a mandate cannot devote part of his success to fighting with the opposition, but must devote himself to building peace.”
The former Brazilian president added that he thought that “Colombia already has serious internal problems with the FARC and I think that peace with its neighbors is what can allow Colombia and Brazil or Colombia and other nations to have an extraordinary development.”
