Sunday, August 2nd 2026 - 20:29 UTC
He said he wants to be prepared so that no one invades the country to take away its president, as has happened elsewhere, adding that he wants to be prepared for peace, not for war
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged on Sunday to increase defense investment if he wins October's elections, as his re-election bid was formalized at the Workers' Party national convention held at the Expo Center Norte in São Paulo.
He said he wants to be prepared so that no one invades the country to take away its president, as has happened elsewhere, adding that he wants to be prepared for peace, not for war. The remark was an apparent reference to the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US special forces on January 3 in Caracas, though he did not name him.
Lula urged left-wing supporters to stop treating defense as a minor matter and cited the strengthening of military industries in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. He acknowledged reservations among part of the electorate stemming from the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, but argued the country must protect its more than 213 million inhabitants, 8.5 million square kilometers of territory and over 8,000 kilometers of coastline amid international instability. He had previously criticized NATO's increases in military spending.
