Lula party fights Cuba cash claim

BBC News
1 November 2005, 03:08 GMT

Brazil's governing Workers' Party says it will sue a magazine for reporting that Cuba helped to finance the 2002 electoral campaign of the president. The leading weekly Veja said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign received up to $3m through a diplomat.

Opposition figures said they would call for an investigation. The Cuban and Brazilian governments deny the report.

The PT (Workers Party) called the report part of a plot by Brazil's elites.

"The magazine is a pamphlet for the PSDB (Social Democrats) and the PFL," PT President Ricardo Berzoini was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The magazine did not provide evidence and issued the report based on interviews with former aides of the finance minister, the Associated Press reports.

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