Ricupero: Itamaraty's rhetoric today is one of war.

247 - A career diplomat between 1961 and 2004, former minister Rubens Ricupero told Price that the tone adopted on Thursday (17) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement about Venezuela, if it had been written at another time, could lead to a war against the neighboring country.

"Brazil has always held a prestigious diplomatic position because it has always used appropriate language when referring to others (...). Even when we disagreed, it was always civilized language. The type of language that was used is unrestrained, offensive, accusatory... In another era of history, this would have led to war. A hundred years ago, there would have been an armed conflict," he stated.

The statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Venezuelan government, "headed by Nicolás Maduro, constitutes an organized crime mechanism"—and further that "it is based on widespread corruption, drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism."

"There has been some abuse of this language, but it serves no useful purpose if Brazil does not actually want to enter into an armed conflict with Venezuela, as has been said," said Ricupero, who issued a warning: "European diplomats, for example, must be horrified (...). I have never seen anything like it. My colleagues have sent me messages expressing astonishment and concern. Colleagues who are diplomats either from here or from the reserves. They are exclamations of stupefaction," he recounted.

Ricupero points out that countries are sovereign and that recent initiatives to overthrow governments in the name of democracy have not ended well. "There's no way one country can solve another country's problems. Unfortunately, in a world like ours, a world of sovereignty, each country has to find its own path. The recent initiatives we've had with the logic of spreading democracy and human rights throughout the world haven't ended well," he stated, citing Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Ricupero fears that Brazil will cease to be taken seriously. "This way, Brazil will end up not being taken seriously among civilized nations (...). There can be no dialogue when there are exchanges of insults and name-calling (...). Throughout our international relations, regardless of the ideological leanings of governments, right or left, there has always been a constant: a sense of measure, balance, restraint (...). Brazil will always carry this stain. Even if one day it evolves and doesn't have a troglodyte government in the future, it will always carry this historical stain of a country capable of committing these absurdities. It's something that cannot be erased," he concluded.