"Bolsonaro" Not planning military incursion of Venezuela

Brazil’s newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro rejected the idea of supporting military intervention in Venezuela in an interview with Record television on Tuesday.

"For our part, we don’t have [the plans for intervention in Venezuela]," Bolsonaro said, stressing that "Brazil will always search for peaceful means of resolving problems."

The president-elect said after his victory in the runoff of the presidential election on Sunday, representatives of some countries discussed with him the issue of the crisis in Venezuela. They voiced hope that Brazil "will take part in resolving this problem in some form," he said.

Bolsonaro emphasized that his country is committed to solving issues through talks, saying that Brazil is interested in cooperation for ending the Venezuelan crisis. "They are our brothers, who are facing very serious problems due to the dictatorship of [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro," he said.

The newly elected president said if Brazil had fulfilled its task when the left-wing Workers’ Party was in power, the crisis in Venezuela would have been resolved. "However, the Workers’ Party has always admired the government of [late Hugo] Chavez and then Maduro. So we have this situation when poor [Venezuelans] suffer and flee even to Brazil as they have nothing to eat in their country," the politician said.
Rumors on intervention in Venezuela

According to Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, a high-ranking official from the Colombian government announced that Bogota had offered Bolsonaro to start a military intervention in Venezuela. However, Colombia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the rumors on the alleged alliance with Brazil aimed at toppling the Venezuelan leader.

Over the past few years, Venezuela has experienced a serious social and economic crisis, accompanied by hyperinflation, depreciation of national currency and shortages of food and medicines. Many citizens have been forced to leave the country amid the difficult situation. According to the United Nations, by this June some 2.3 mln Venezuelans fled the country for Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

On Sunday, Brazil held the runoff presidential election. With 100% of the ballots counted, Bolsonaro who represents the conservative Social Liberal Party, garnered 55.13% of the vote, while his rival, Fernando Haddad, the candidate from the leftist Workers’ Party, secured 44.87% of the vote.

The new Brazilian president will be sworn in on January 1, 2019.