Burak UzunBrazil fears that any US intervention in Venezuela could be very damaging for the whole of South America, a senior foreign policy adviser has told the AFP news agency amid US military build-up in the Caribbean and tense standoff between Washington and Caracas.
With US warships deployed in the Caribbean — that Washington says are only targeting "drug-carrying" boats — "we cannot accept an outside intervention because it will trigger immense resentment," Celso Amorim, aide to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said on Friday.
"It could inflame South America and lead to radicalisation of politics on the whole continent."
It comes as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the deployment of the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its supporting warships to the US Southern Command Area, drastically increasing the number of troops and aircraft in the Latin America region.
"The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on X.
He did not specify when the carrier would be moving to the region.
Washington began carrying out a military campaign targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats in early September, deploying forces including stealth warplanes and Navy ships to the region, but has yet to release evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics.
"Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a measure of last resort against an individual representing an imminent threat to life," UN rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado Gomez told AFP Friday, when asked to comment on the strikes.
"Otherwise, it would constitute a violation of the right to life," she said, adding: "Generally speaking, no one should be killed for drug-related offences."
Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes, with Venezuela accusing the United States of plotting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, who said earlier this week that his country has 5,000 Russian man-portable surface-to-air missiles to counter US forces.
On Thursday, at least one US B-1B bomber flew over the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, flight tracking data showed. That followed a show of force by multiple US B-52 bombers that circled off Venezuela's coast last week.
"We are threatened daily by the US empire — a daily psychological war. Words back and forth. They move a ship, they move a missile," said Maduro on Thursday.
Trump targets Petro, Sheinbaum
US has also targeted the leadership of Colombia, and Mexico.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, US President Donald Trump claimed that "cartels are running countries," accusing Colombia of being "a drug den" and claiming it produces "cocaine at levels that we've never seen before, and they sell it back."
Threatening to take action, he said the US is "not going to put up with it much longer. Colombia is very bad."
Trump has accused his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, of being "a drug leader," announcing the suspension of all economic aid to the country.
President Petro says US president is being "misled" by his advisers, suggesting that he was the one who uncovered alleged links between drug trafficking and political power in Colombia.
Trump has called Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum a "very brave woman" but argues that "Mexico is run by the cartels, and we have to defend ourselves from that."
Sheinbaum on Thursday criticised Washington's increasing military operations in international waters.
"Obviously, we do not agree. There are international laws governing how operations must be carried out when facing alleged illegal drug or weapons transportation in international waters. We have made this clear to the government of the United States," she said.
