Brazil's vice-president Hamilton Mourão called Venezuela's Chavista government a regime of "privileges, discrimination, and violence, that doesn't respect the rule of law," on Monday (25th) during a speech in Bogotá, Colombia.

Mourão also said that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is heading a "criminal" administration, and defended that the blockade against the entrance of humanitarian aid at the Venezuela border this weekend was a "human rights violation."

Mourão was in Colombia to attend a meeting of the Lima Group, a forum of 14 countries in the American continent that recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.

​Mexico is currently the only member still recognizing Maduro as president.During his speech, made in Spanish, Mourão rejected Brazil's support to military intervention in Venezuela, like the United States and Guaidó have suggested.

Both US president Donald Trump and vice-president Mike Pence, who attended the meeting, have stated that "all options are on the table" regarding the effort to remove Maduro from power.

Mourão reinforced Brazil's position against a military operation by saying that "it's necessary to reinstate democracy in Venezuela without extreme measures."The vice-president defended the use of sanctions against the Maduro regime but stressed that they should not penalize the Venezuelan people. 

Translated by NATASHA MADOV
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