Brazil's Lula warns US intervention in Venezuela could be catastrophic

SAO PAULO, Dec 20 - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday that an "armed intervention in Venezuela would be a humanitarian catastrophe" in the face of escalating actions from the United States toward regional neighbor Venezuela.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, in Washington's latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro's government, targeting its main source of income.

Lula and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the leaders of Latin America's two largest economies, had already urged restraint this week, as tensions escalated.

But on Saturday, during a summit of the South American Mercosur bloc in Foz do Iguaçu, a city in southern Brazil, Lula made a stronger statement against what he said would be a "dangerous precedent for the world."

More than four decades after the Falklands War, between Argentina and Britain, he added, "the South American continent is once again haunted by the military presence of an extra-regional power." REUTERS