President Fernandez held a meeting with Lula, prior to the Azucena Villaflor 2021 awards ceremony. | Photo: Twitter Frente de Todos

Buenos Aires, December 11 (RHC)-- Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received this Friday in Buenos Aires a commemorative plaque for his commitment to human rights, in the framework of the Azucena Villaflor 2021 Awards Ceremony.

Lula received the plaque from the Secretary of Human Rights, Horacio Pietragalla, for his "trajectory in favor of human rights" of the peoples "and his contribution to the construction and unity of the 'Patria Grande,'"

Argentinean President Alberto Fernández headed the awards ceremony together with Vice President and former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in which six personalities of the country were distinguished for their commitment to human rights.

"Today we celebrate the day of democracy that commemorates that December 10th that ended the Argentinean tragedy of the genocidal dictatorship and coincides with the international day of Human Rights," said Fernandez at the Bicentennial Museum of the Casa Rosada.

Later, in the Plaza de Mayo, Lula said that the past decade, marked by "progressive and humanist" governments in the region, meant "the best moment of democracy in our Patria Grande, in our beloved Latin America."

Lula participated in the commemoration of Democracy and Human Rights Day, led by Fernández and also attended by Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.  The former president of Brazil affirmed that South America lived its best moment when the countries of the region "expelled the FTAA and reaffirmed Mercosur", he thanked "the solidarity" he received from the Argentine people and Alberto Fernandez during his imprisonment.

"I had the pleasure of governing Brazil in the period in which Kirchner governed Argentina and in which Cristina governed Argentina."   "I had the opportunity to govern Brazil when Chávez was president of Venezuela and I had the opportunity to govern Brazil when Evo Morales was president of Bolivia, and when Tabaré and later Pepe governed Uruguay," reviewed the former president of Brazil.

Lula da Silva is meeting this Saturday in Buenos Aires with leaders of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) of Argentina in the company of the former president of Uruguay, José Mujica.

At the CGT, Lula and Mujica talked with workers about the challenges facing our continent.  The obligation to always look to the future, reviewing history, but formulating new answers to the historical problems of our Latin America.