In remarks made to O Globo’s Estúdio i program Aug. 7, Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s top foreign policy advisor and former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim warned of the great complexity and danger of the Venezuelan situation. Venezuela is so divided, he said, that only a steady diplomacy committed to fostering dialogue between the two parties and leading to some form of pacification and mediation has a chance of success. Forget about hard-line posturing or ultimata, he warned; they won’t work.
He told Estúdio i that “we have to find a solution for this.” Due to the extreme division in the country, rhetoric must be toned down to help with the process of pacification. “The point is not to harden [our position] but to speak truthfully … to try to create a dialogue. Venezuela is a very divided country, and if we don’t do things the right way, the possibility of the situation worsening is very great…. The situation is so complex, so difficult, and the division so deep,” he warned, “that we must have the ability to move to a profound dialogue which involves both parties.”
