December 20, 2025, 4:00 p.mDecember 20, 2025, 4:00 p.m
President Lula da Silva.Image: keystone
In view of the escalating conflict between the United States and Venezuela, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has warned against US military intervention in the South American country. “An armed intervention in Venezuela would be a humanitarian catastrophe for the hemisphere and a dangerous precedent for the world,” said Lula at the summit of the South American Mercosur confederation in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
The US military has assembled a force of warships, fighter jets and soldiers off the coast of Venezuela. Officially, the operation is aimed at drug smuggling. Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, however, fears that Washington wants to force a change of power in Caracas.
However, Mercosur is divided on the matter. The right-wing governments of Argentina and Paraguay support a tough stance against Venezuela. “Maduro is a dictator and has to go,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno before the summit began, according to a report in the newspaper La Nación. Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano emphasized the threat to regional security posed by the Venezuelan government and called for the release of political prisoners. (sda/dpa)