The government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has advised those who suffer defeat in democratic elections to, in Caribbean parlance, ‘take your licks like a man’.
The advice came in a statement that unequivocally condemned the January 8 bombarding of the physical facilities of Brazil’s National Congress and the Supreme Court.
The statement blamed ‘the forces of fascism and barbarism allied to the former President Jair Bolsonaro who was defeated in the recent presidential elections by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.’
“It is fast becoming the norm for defeated candidates and political parties in tandem with desperate allies to seek the overturn of democratic, free and fair, elections by unconstitutional means or by weaponising the law and legal system through bogus, unsubstantiated claims of electoral malfeasance,” the release noted.
It observed that street “warfare” is invariably accompanied, quite cynically, by ‘lawfare’.
“In our hemisphere, this dastardly twin approach has been employed by defeated parties and candidates. Examples abound in the USA, Bolivia, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Guyana, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines, and now, Brazil,” the SVG government observed.
And the statement declared that all those of democratic temper are obliged to confront and push back against these undemocratic forces masquerading as “democratic”.
“The government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is fully supportive of President Lula and the democratic institutions in Brazil in their efforts to bring the law-breakers to justice. It is our elemental duty to do so,” the release asserted.
