MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula joins diatribes against Elon Musk

Musk is going to have to use a lot of the money he has to help preserve the environment, Lula warned

Although he did not mention him by name, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva targeted X owner Elon Musk when he warned that billionaires must learn to preserve the rainforest. Lula made those remarks during an event at the Planalto Palace announcing funding worth US$ 145.8 million to combat wildfires and achieve the 2030 goals.

Lula questioned Musk's comments regarding Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes' decision to order the social media platform to delete some accounts believed to be spreading fake news. For these measures, Musk dubbed De Moraes “a dictator” who Lula “tied up.” He also accused De Moraes of censorship and of threatening to arrest employees of the social network in Brazil.

De Moraes argued that he saw evidence of obstruction of justice and incitement to crime in Musk's actions and that the billionaire was using social networks to spread disinformation and destabilize institutions of the Democratic Rule of Law.

According to Lula, the South African-born tycoon “will have to learn to live” in the South American country. Lula also spoke of “a billionaire trying to make rockets to see if he can find something out there” when “he's going to have to spend a lot of the money he has to help preserve that here, to improve people's lives.”

“Today we have people who don't believe that deforestation and burning are damaging planet Earth. And many people don't take seriously what maintaining forests means for maintaining the quality of life in this huge house that is our planet and that we have nowhere to run,” Lula said.

“There are even billionaires trying to make rockets, trying to travel to see if they can find any space out there. He's going to have to learn to live here, he's going to have to use a lot of the money he has to help preserve this here, to improve people's lives,” he added.

SpaceX, one of the companies owned by Musk, is focused on space exploration missions. Hence, it can be inferred with no room for doubt that the Workers' Party leader had him in mind despite never mentioning his name. At the same time, Musk's satellite internet provider Starlink started operations in the Brazilian Amazon recently.

After Musk challenged De Moraes' rulings, the magistrate placed him under investigation for his alleged involvement in a fake news spreading ring.

Musk will be meeting later this week with another South American leader who does not see Lula eye-to-eye: Argentine President Javier Milei is expected at the Tesla car factory in Texas on Saturday, Spokesman Manuel Adorni announced Tuesday in Buenos Aires. Tesla is another company owned by Musk.

“On April 13 a trip to Texas is scheduled to visit the Tesla factory and on that day Milei is going to meet Elon Musk,” Adorni said.