The Mercosur summit exposed deep political differences among its main leaders over the Venezuelan crisis, with openly opposing stances on the role of the United States and the possibility of military action against the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, warned that a military intervention in Venezuela would be a 'humanitarian catastrophe' and set an extremely dangerous precedent for all of South America. The Brazilian leader argued that far from resolving the crisis, a military action would aggravate the population's suffering and destabilize the entire region. Lula, who has tried to position himself as a mediator in recent months, assured that he had maintained contacts with both U.S. President Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In contrast, Argentine President Javier Milei urged the countries of Mercosur to support U.S. actions and unequivocally condemn the Maduro government, which he described as an 'authoritarian experiment.' 'Argentina welcomes the pressure from the United States and Donald Trump to free the Venezuelan people,' Milei stated. This stance prevented a joint communiqué from Mercosur and evidenced the lack of internal consensus on how to approach the Venezuelan crisis. Milei thus reiterated his support for the extensive U.S. naval deployment initiated in September in the Caribbean, a position that deepens the distance with Brazil and reconfigures tensions within the regional bloc. The Argentine leader also asked the bloc's partners to join this position and adopt an explicit condemnation against Caracas. The clash of visions was also reflected on an institutional level. Brazil refused to endorse a ministerial resolution pushed by Argentina and Paraguay that sought to condemn human rights violations and threats to democracy in Venezuela. In his speech as host of the meeting, the Brazilian leader also warned about the regional impact of the growing military deployment of an extra-regional power on the continent. 'Four decades after the Falklands War, the continent is once again threatened by the military presence of a power,' Lula stated, in a direct reference to the naval cordon that the United States maintains off the Venezuelan coast. 'The time for timid approaches is over,' Milei expressed during his intervention, according to an official communiqué from the Presidency.
