Brazil on a knife's edge in the face of US aggression against South America.
The escalation of the illegal, extrajudicial, and criminal war against Venezuela now involves 15 soldiers and sailors.
The world's largest warship has now arrived within striking distance of Venezuelan sovereign territory. The US aircraft carrier Gerald Ford leads the largest aggressive force the empire has ever assembled against a Latin American country, that is, against the region as a whole.
The escalation of the illegal, extrajudicial, and criminal war against Venezuela now involves 15 soldiers and sailors. The aircraft carrier joins a fleet of eight warships, a nuclear submarine, and state-of-the-art supersonic fighter jets.
So far, the United States has launched at least twenty attacks against boats in the Caribbean, killing about eighty people in operations that clearly violate international law. Under the pretext of combating the trafficking of fentanyl and cocaine to eager consumers in Uncle Sam's homeland, the Yankees are actually testing the mettle of the Venezuelans.
The hidden ambition is to subdue, by example, the entire continent to the hegemony of the empire. As is well known, the United States has been losing the status of absolute superpower that it once held after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Today, a multipolar world is an imposed reality. In a compensatory move, Donald Trump chose to try to regain, through panic, his arrogant dominance over what his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, referring to the continent of Simón Bolívar, calls the "backyard" of the United States.
The escalation inevitably reflects a certain realism in the face of the new global balance of power. No longer able to maintain their status as the undisputed masters of the world, the United States is attempting to subdue all of Latin America. Will they succeed?
No, not if it depends on the Venezuelans. They denounce the psychological nature of the offensive, which is similar to so many other threats typical of Donald Trump's unpredictable, erratic, and capricious behavior.
Now, once again, he finds himself in a critical situation where he will have to choose between attacking or becoming demoralized. It is already clear that this military force has nothing to do with drug trafficking, as Venezuela is not a route for such activity. The real objective is to overthrow the constitutional government of Nicolás Maduro. If he fails, Trump will have to find a way to claim victory and de-escalate.
The other scenario would be entering a new, endless war, as the Venezuelan population once again shows no sign of rebelling alongside traitors like María Corina Machado. Venezuelans are armed in defense of the Bolivarian revolution. In his fearless style, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, also threatened, summed up the situation bluntly: "a clan of pedophiles sent battleships to kill fishermen."
Brazil under Lula has been acting in an exemplary manner in a complex situation. It defends peace, criticizes foreign military interference, and offers itself as a mediator in negotiations with Caracas. At the same time, it keeps its own negotiation channels open to obtain reductions in trade tariffs and political sanctions imposed by Washington.
So far, Trump has not been successful in his attempts to coerce Brazil, nor in his threats against Venezuela or Colombia. However, no outcome can be ruled out beforehand.
