He could have said socialism.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday cast Venezuela’s ongoing wave of 1 million refugees fleeing across its borders so far as a destabilizing, anti-democratic force in South America, but he stopped short of offering military assistance to what he defined as a regional crisis.
“We stand with Brazil and others in the region against this instability that is crossing borders, just as we stand with the people of Venezuela, in the midst of the tragedy forced on them by a power-hungry, oppressive regime that forces refugees into Brazil, Colombia, and elsewhere,” Mattis said at Brazil’s War College in the first leg of a four-nation tour to promote closer ties with South America’s four leading civilian controlled militaries — those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.
The Pentagon has mostly avoided responding to the outpouring of Venezuelans fleeing food and medicine shortages in the nation led by President Nicolás Maduro.
Instead, the United States has provided more than $60 million in overall assistance, something defense officials have emphasized particularly since President Donald Trump announced last summer that he was not ”ruling out a military option” to solve the Venezuelan crisis.
Later, en route to Buenos Aires, Mattis told reporters that despite his discussions on the topic with South American defense ministers, the Venezuelan crisis is “not a military matter.”
“The regime’s actions in Caracas are of concern all across the hemisphere from Ottawa to Buenos Aires. This is not what we stand for in the Americas; we stand for democracy, freedom,“ he said. “The resolution of this is … to get back to democratic principles inside Venezuela.“
In his speech, the retired Marine general who has fought alongside international coalitions in Afghanistan and the Middle East, continued his support of a regional assistance approach to the humanitarian crisis, hailing Brazil’s “prudent response to Venezuela’s destabilizing actions” through a regional response in the so-called Lima Group and through the Organization of American States.