Brazil's Leader Demands Maduro Face Legal Accountability in Venezuela

(MENAFN) Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva staked out a firm diplomatic position Friday, insisting that detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro must be held accountable through his own country's legal system — not hauled before a foreign tribunal — as tensions over Washington's extraordinary seizure of a sitting head of state continue to reverberate across Latin America.

Lula delivered the remarks at the Artificial Intelligence Summit in India, weeks after Maduro was abducted from Caracas by US operatives on January 3 in a move that sent shockwaves through the international community.

"I am of the firm belief that if Nicolás Maduro is to stand trial, he should be tried in Venezuela, not abroad," Lula told media, emphasizing a commitment to national jurisdiction over international intervention.

While acknowledging that the ultimate goal must be the "restoration of democracy in Venezuela," Lula argued that the path to that outcome cannot come at the cost of dismantling the foundational principles of national sovereignty. He warned that permitting a foreign power to forcibly extract and prosecute a sitting head of state sets a deeply dangerous global precedent — drawing a direct parallel to cases involving Brazilian nationals facing prosecution in the United States, and reaffirming his long-held position that individuals must be tried under their own constitutional frameworks at home.

Meanwhile, Venezuela itself is undergoing sweeping transformation under the direct stewardship of the Trump administration, with Delcy Rodríguez installed as interim president. In a significant legislative development Thursday, the Venezuelan Congress passed a sweeping amnesty law by unanimous vote, signaling a dramatic political realignment in Caracas.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, remain in preventive detention on American soil, facing grave US federal allegations tying the couple to large-scale international cocaine trafficking networks.

Lula's remarks land at a particularly sensitive juncture in Brazil-US relations. The Brazilian president is actively working to lock in a face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington, tentatively penciled in for March. Central to Lula's Washington agenda is securing relief from punishing tariffs that have long suppressed trade flows between the two largest economies in the Americas — a bilateral tension that predates, but is now entangled with, the Venezuelan crisis dominating hemispheric diplomacy.

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