Brazil Rejects Maduro's Regime and Voices Concern Over U.S. Military Deployment

The Brazilian government has once again stated it does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Additionally, it has expressed concern over the recent deployment of U.S. military vessels near Venezuela's shores as part of an anti-drug operation in the region.

Celso Amorim, former foreign minister and current advisor for International Affairs to the Brazilian presidency, recently commented that the presence of three U.S. warships in the Caribbean is a cause for "concern." He emphasized that combating organized crime should not be a unilateral effort. "It requires cooperation among nations," the diplomat asserted to local media.

Despite Brazil maintaining diplomatic relations with Venezuela, Amorim was clear in stating, "Brazil does not recognize Nicolás Maduro's regime as a legitimate government." This stance reflects the initial position of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration, which insists that "election records never surfaced" following Venezuela's July 2024 elections, widely condemned as fraudulent by the international community.

In August of that year, Brazil and Colombia both rejected the election results presented by Maduro's regime, citing a lack of transparency and verifiable data. Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro both urged the Venezuelan regime to release voting records in response to widespread fraud allegations. These demands, echoed by the Venezuelan opposition and most countries globally and in the region—except for the regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua—were ignored.

The illegitimate power grab and repression against a populace that voted overwhelmingly for change—by more than 30 percentage points, according to opposition data—along with the persecution of key leaders and the exiled teams of María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, have once again propped up Maduro's regime on glaringly illegitimate grounds.

Regional tensions escalated last week when the United States deployed 4,500 troops and several warships to Caribbean and Latin American waters to combat drug trafficking, targeting organizations like the Soles Cartel, associated with Venezuela's top brass. Washington claims that Maduro leads a narco-state propped up by military elite support and client networks both inside and outside the country, which led to doubling the bounty on his capture to $50 million.

In response, the Maduro regime mobilized 4.5 million militiamen and deployed 15,000 troops on the Colombian border, accusing the U.S. of seeking regime change in Caracas.

Brazil, hosting over a million Venezuelan refugees, has attempted to mediate the crisis alongside Colombia and Mexico. Nonetheless, Lula da Silva has taken a tougher stance due to the lack of progress and bilateral tensions following the massive electoral fraud of July 2024. "I do not accept the victory of either Maduro or the opposition. We demand evidence," he said in a radio interview in August of that year, advocating for new transparent elections—a controversial solution given the totalitarian control and repression by the Maduro regime.

While analysts see Lula's position as a mediation strategy that could benefit Maduro—providing him time and the benefit of the doubt—Amorim's recent statements redirect attention to the Venezuelan regime's lack of legitimacy. This opens the possibility for greater coordination to end Nicolás Maduro's narco-dictatorship, despite the regional uncertainty prompted by the increasing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.