Venezuela: Brazil’s helps – a bit

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Brazil is involved hesitant at the humanitarian action for Venezuela. The government Bolsonaro is not afraid of the risk of a military conflict with Venezuela.

For the past two weeks, the Tienditas is locked-a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela: Container, Truck-trailer and concrete sleepers block the three state-built highways on the Venezuelan side. In the border of Táchira, no one goes to 20 hrs on the road. Venezuelan soldiers and convoys are spread out over the whole city.

There was a tense silence reigns. The reason: Over the bridge of relief goods should be brought to Venezuela. The self-appointed interim President, Juan Guaidó has requested food and medicine for the needy population. Constantly transport planes bringing relief supplies to Western countries from the USA and Europe to Cúcuta, the border town on the Colombian side. 100 million dollars in donations have already been pledged, said Guaidó at a conference of the organization of American States (OAS), including from Germany. Of Colombia, from the Caribbean and Brazil, relief goods should be brought from Saturday to Venezuela, announced Guaidó already ten days ago. Also airports and ship traffic with the Antilles Islands of Curação, Bonnaire, and Aruba has blocked the Venezuelan Navy.

Helpful, but only a bit

However, In Brazil, the preparations for which supplies are held to be delayed and rather half-hearted: Only on Tuesday, a government spokesman, Otávio Rêgo Barros said that Brazil, the Venezuelan Opposition “would give logistical help”, so they could pick up the relief goods in the Brazilian Border town of Boa Vista and Pacaraima in the Amazon. The Transport of the goods, however, would be organized by the Venezuelans and carried out, – said the speaker, a former General. In the Brazilian media, it is, above all, the military in the Cabinet Bolsonaro are not in agreement, such as Brazil, the delivery of aid should participate.

Plane loads of international aid for Venezuela countries stored in Cúcuta

 

The reluctance amazed. As for the participating right-wing President, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil swear were popular rantings on the Regime in Venezuela and its head of state, Nicolás Maduro in the election to criticize his political opponents from the workers ‘ party. Because the candidate hesitated to condemn Maduro as a dictator – what it has cost him crucial votes from the Brazilian middle class.

So it was no wonder that Bolsonaro recognized as one of the first presidents in Latin America Juan Guaidó as the legitimate President of Venezuela, together with the United States and most governments of Latin America. Guaidó had declared a month ago, Maduro for not legitimacy because the elections were fake and as the Parliament’s President, to the interim head of state declared. With this legal move by the 35-year-old Guaidó has brought forced the embattled Maduro in justification – and since then, he’s doing the Almighty Potentate.

With the aid deliveries on Saturday, he hopes that the military will allow the convoys into the country – and, thus, Maduro, de facto, renounce your loyalty. But currently it is completely open whether that will happen. The military, under the leadership of Minister of defense Vladimir Padrino have expressed their Loyalty to Maduro.

Fear of a conflict at the border

The situation is explosive. “The Situation can quickly get out of control,” said Luis Vicente León, the survey Institute of Datanalisis in Caracas. So, it is mainly the risk to be in conflict with the Venezuelan military involved, which is why the government of Jair Bolsonaro, himself a captain in the Reserve, as reserved in the auxiliary action to occur. Brazil has a 2200-kilometre-long, largely unguarded border with Venezuela. Every conflict in the Amazon for Brazil’s military, a serious logistical challenge – you could win.

Brazil’s governments have watched for years how the Chavisten undermined in Venezuela, democracy

In addition, Brazil is in the Venezuela crisis to the extras damn it, like the Rest of South America. Because Brazil as a regional power in South America has watched as the left-wing populist Hugo Chávez and, since 2013, his successor, Nicolás Maduro, to undermine democracy in Venezuela for over two decades and the country into the worst economic and humanitarian crisis of its history, were able to travel. The left governments of Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil from 2003 to 2015 tolerated not only the dismantling of democracy in the North of the half-continent – and many Brazilian companies were also still good deals to the Caribbean, as Venezuela benefited from the high Oil price and foreign exchange had.

Playground for great powers

However, due to the severe political and economic crisis in Brazil starting in 2014, the corruption scandal Mensalão and Lava-Jato, and finally the Impeachment of President Rousseff of Brazil withdrew completely from the role of a regional power in South America. In the foreign policy vacuum are now entered the great powers: the USA and China, but also Russia decide that now, as it is in the Venezuela crisis. “South America has become a Playground of the great powers,” says Oliver Read, Professor of international relations at the University of Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. “Brazil and the South Americans have to say in the Region, nothing more.”

This will not, however, prevent the government Bolsonaro, to celebrate a possible change of system in Venezuela as a victory for their new conservative foreign policy, says Read: “This would be despite the low use of a Triumph for Bolsonaro.”

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