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A top Brazilian official has warned that the United States risks igniting a catastrophic Vietnam-style conflict in Latin America if it proceeds with a military intervention in Venezuela.
Getting into it: In an interview with The Guardian, Brazilian foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim expressed concern over President Donald Trump’s escalating pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, warning that any US invasion would have dire and far-reaching consequences for the region. “The last thing we want is for South America to become a war zone – and a war zone that would inevitably not just be a war between the US and Venezuela,” Amorim said. “It would end up having global involvement and this would be really unfortunate.”
Amorim, a veteran diplomat and top aide to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, compared the potential fallout to the Vietnam War, saying, “If there was an invasion, a real invasion … I think undoubtedly you would see something similar to Vietnam – on what scale it’s impossible to say.” He warned that even leaders and citizens in the region who oppose Maduro would likely rally against foreign intervention, adding, “I know South America … our whole continent exists because of resistance against foreign invaders.”
These warnings come just as President Trump signaled a possible shift in US posture, telling Politico that Maduro’s “days are numbered” but refusing to confirm or deny whether he would authorize a military effort to remove the Venezuelan leader. “I don’t want to say that,” Trump said when asked how far he would go, later repeating, “I don’t want to rule in or out.”
It also follows an uptick in US military activity in the region. Two US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets recently flew over the Gulf of Venezuela for over half an hour in what analysts say was the closest US military aircraft have come to Venezuelan airspace since tensions escalated.
