Brazil's Possible Future Foreign Minister Not Ruling Out Intervention To Venezuela

Brazil's Social Liberal Party, headed by leading presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, is not ruling out military intervention to the crisis-torn Venezuela, but considers it a last-resort option, lawmaker and possible future foreign minister Luiz Philippe de Orleans told Sputnik.

RIO DE JANEIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) Brazil's Social Liberal Party, headed by leading presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, is not ruling out military intervention to the crisis-torn Venezuela, but considers it a last-resort option, lawmaker and possible future foreign minister Luiz Philippe de Orleans told Sputnik.

On October 7, Bolsonaro won 46.03 percent of the votes compared to rival Fernando Haddad's 29.28 percent. Both candidates failed to surpass the threshold of 50 percent needed to win the election and are set to take part in the runoff on October 28.

"We have a dictatorship in the neighborhood, but we do absolutely nothing politically ... We must act in accordance with our principles, we must not tolerate dictatorship in Latin America, I leave the opportunity for military intervention open," Philippe said.

Actions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro do not necessarily mean invading Venezuela as it could be just financial and logistical support for opposition groups that are seeking to overthrow the regime, the lawmaker explained.

Venezuela is currently in a deep economic crisis caused by the fall of oil prices and has been facing mass protests since last spring.

In August, Brazilian President Michel Temer ordered to deploy forces to the northernmost state of Roraima, located on border with Venezuela, due to the large influx of migrants from the crisis-torn country. The UN Refugee Agency has expressed concern over the growing exodus of refugees from Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan authorities claim that there is no humanitarian crisis in the country.