SAO PAULO, Brazil – Venezuela has temporarily closed its border with Brazil following an early morning U.S. attack on Caracas in which U.S. forces also captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
A Brazilian military official told Al Jazeera that the border crossing between the Brazilian city of Pacaraima and Venezuela’s Santa Elena de Huilén had been closed on the Venezuelan side for about five hours, preventing nationals from entering Brazil.
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“There was no formal protocol from Venezuela regarding entry and exit criteria. In fact, Brazilians are allowed to leave the country, but Venezuelans face restrictions. But this could change at any time,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
Brazil’s federal police chief also announced the temporary closure, and the state governor of Roraima told Reuters the border had reopened after a brief closure.
Brazil’s government said it was monitoring the border and sending military personnel to the area to strengthen security.
“The Minister of Defense stated that there are no unusual activities on the Brazil-Venezuela border, which will continue to be monitored, and that he is in contact with the Governor of Roraima,” a statement from Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Venezuelans make up Brazil’s largest foreign population. In the state of Roraima alone, there are 77,563 immigrants from this country. In total, around 8 million Venezuelans have left their homeland over the past decade, and more than 6 million have resettled in other Latin American countries.
Jessica Leon Cedeno, a Venezuelan journalist based in São Paulo, told Al Jazeera: “I think there is a very high possibility that Venezuelans will migrate to Brazil. In fact, we are already seeing concrete signs of this.”
“Millions of people are leaving the country in search of better living conditions and opportunities.”
Lula says US attack could ‘destabilize’ region
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday that US President Donald Trump’s actions inside Venezuela are “unacceptable.”
“The bombing of Venezuelan territory and the detention of the president crosses an unacceptable line,” Lula wrote to X. “These actions are a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and set another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”
Brazil’s leaders have been calling for restraint for months as the U.S. military builds up off the coast of Venezuela.
Analysts fear that removing Mr. Maduro could plunge Venezuela into chaos and spark a new wave of large-scale migration, similar to the failed attempt to remove Mr. Maduro in 2019.
João Carlos Jarocinski Silva, a professor of international relations at the Federal University of Roraima, said a potential wave of migrants would depend on multiple factors, including whether the U.S. government continues military operations in the country and whether remaining forces of Maduro’s regime resist.
“How resilient is Chavismo in Venezuela?” Jarocinski Silva said, referring to the political movement named after former President Hugo Chavez. “This could have really alarming consequences, but given the current scenario, there is no need to fear.”
He added that Trump has so far focused on praising his country’s military’s actions inside Venezuela and has not addressed major humanitarian concerns. Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut funding to USAID, the U.S. government’s main foreign aid agency, greatly impacting Venezuela’s neighbors Brazil and Colombia.
“The United States has recently reduced humanitarian resources,” he said, adding that the actions of the U.S. military in the country would be affected. “For example, refugees and other people who may be affected by this. He is not going to be involved in this topic at any point.”
