President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made national sovereignty the core of Brazil's Independence Day address, broadcast on national radio and television on Sunday night (Sept 6). According to Folha de S.Paulo, the president used the speech to reinforce themes of his third term that also anchor his reelection campaign: the defense of sovereignty and the development of strategic minerals.
The indirect target was US President Donald Trump. News outlet G1 identified criticism of the tariffs Washington imposed on Brazilian goods. Folha reported that the speech rejected foreign interference in mineral exploration, oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River and international trade, as the United States works to curb China's advance in Latin America.
"We must stay strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not once again become a colony of other foreign powers. We are not, and we will never be, anyone's colony," Lula said.
In the speech, he defined a sovereign country as one able to "defend its territory, its borders, its environment, its wealth and its people from any foreign interests". On trade he was blunt: "No foreign ruler has the right to tell us whom we can buy from and whom we can sell to. We are a sovereign country, and our decisions belong to us and to no one else."
Rare earths and the minerals framework
Lula mentioned rare earths, minerals used in electronics and military equipment, and oil at the mouth of the Amazon. He cited the Senate's approval of a bill creating the National Policy for Critical and Strategic Minerals, which sets up a guarantee fund to support projects and a 5 billion reais tax credit to encourage ore processing in Brazil, G1 reported.
"More than ever, we must fight for what is ours. We have the world's second largest rare earths reserve, and the largest source of fresh water. Last month, we discovered a new and rich oil reserve. This wealth must serve the future of the Brazilian people," he said.
A speech cleared by the electoral court
The broadcast only aired because Brazil's electoral court allowed it. In an election year, the presidential communications office asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that regulates Brazilian elections, for permission to avoid legal challenges. The court's president, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, authorized the broadcast on Friday (Sept 4) and called it a matter "of public interest", tied to a date with its own historical and institutional meaning.
Minerals were already part of the campaign before the speech. In a televised campaign program last week, Lula used faces on periodic table symbols to explain rare earths to voters, Folha reported. The newspaper also noted that Ronaldo Caiado, one of the president's rivals in the race, proposed a partnership with the United States to mine in his state of Goiás, and that Trump rejected Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for attempting a coup, signaled sympathy for the campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro and tried to send officers to monitor Brazil's election.
The first round of the presidential election takes place in October. Sovereignty remains one of the president's central arguments as he seeks reelection.