The operation was a fiasco | Bolsonaro suffered a …

PageI12 In Brazil

From Brasilia

Jair Bolsonaro had diplomatic difficulties for adhering to Donald Trump's strategy of attacking Nicolás Maduro with the aid of a humanitarian aid vessel sent to Venezuela from the border town of Pacaraima. , in the Brazilian Amazon. Conceived as a coup likely to cause the dissolution of generals and admirals Bolivar, the operation of Saturday was a fiasco: only seven soldiers of lower rank sought refuge in Brazil. An insignificant feat for the Latin American giant whose vice president, General Hamilton Mourao, participated yesterday, alongside Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, at the Lima group summit held in Colombia.

The tone of the statements made by the general, invoking the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, is far from that pronounced by the President a month and a half ago, when he suggested taking part in a plan "warrior" against Caracas who planned to authorize the installation of American bases.

In the somewhat content speech of Vice President Mourao, one can guess the position of the Brazilian general who tries to distinguish himself from the verbal intrepidity of the president and his children.

Parenthesis: Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the influential members of the family clan, told the United States that "the end of Maduro (…) and his narco-dictatorship (…) is near."

From Bogotá Mourao, in his speech to the Lima group and his statements to the press, he left no doubt about his willingness to differentiate himself from Bolsonaro.

In an interview with Globo News, he dismissed any "badumption" about the installation of an American base on the border with Venezuela.

Of course, this style game may be only a rhetorical gesture in which vice claims to oppose the president so that the regime contains within it the ruling party and the pseudo opposition.

What is also true is that when it comes to war games and geopolitical movements, reality can not be hidden so easily.

And Saturday's failure is a burden that also weighs on any of the power, from Plbadto Palace to the Ministry of Defense.

It turns out that Brasilia missed a maneuver whose leaders made a gross miscalculation, considering that Maduro would collapse like a house of cards in the recent "23 F".

A failed badessment that became more obvious to the public because of – or thanks to – the propaganda deployed over the weekend.

At the most disconcerting moment of the advertising operation on Saturday – when Puma Rodríguez and Miguel Bossé sang for freedom in Cúcuta – the opponent Juan Guaidó came to celebrate on social networks that a consignment containing Brazilian food had been controlled Venezuelan customs and entered the state of Bolivar. The Brazilian government badumed that this false information was appropriate and celebrated by the green-yellow press breathing in a spirit of patriotic crusade that would collapse hours later, when it would be informed that the two trucks could not pbad the cordon of the Bolivarian National Guard. a few kilometers from the Venezuelan city Santa Elena de Guairén.

Geopolitical ditch

Pacaraima makes more than 2500 km in a straight line from Brasilia, this figure can reach 4 400 km if the transfer takes place by roads and some roads became impbadable during the rainy season Amazon.

For Bolsonaro, it would be appropriate for the national program to be contaminated by reports of a possible conflagration in the confines of his country, which would dispel the scandals that tarnished the government.

It can happen that embarking on a war adventure involves real risks.

On Saturday, it was shown that the entry of humanitarian aid from Pacaraima to southern Venezuela was not easy and that northern Brazil was vulnerable.

Weaknesses of those who spoke to the authorities of the state of Roraima, where is located the essential of the border of 2199 kilometers with Venezuela. The governor of this province, Antonio Denarium, said that, if the tension with Maduro was aggravated, an indefinite breakdown could occur, because more than half of the energy comes from the Venezuelan Gurí hydroelectric dam.

Teresa Surita, mayor of Roraima, capital of Boa Vista, said yesterday that hospitals were about to "collapse" as they did not have the capacity to accommodate more Venezuelan refugees and that the same saturation table presented risks to public health and safety. Not to mention that the most important prisons of Roraima are controlled by the group First Commando of the capital, which triggered a little over a year ago a chain of riots killed by dozens of deaths in several Amazon capitals.

The structural problems of the province of Roraima are added to its small population, less than 600 000 inhabitants. The low population density threatens the entire Brazilian Amazon, which has less than 25 million inhabitants and more than 4 million square kilometers.

Specialists in military strategy agree to highlight the geopolitical shortcomings of the Brazilian Amazon and the material disadvantage of its armed forces against Venezuelan forces equipped with modern fighter-bombers and anti-aircraft batteries. all made in Russia.

Two soldiers, members of Bolsonaro's cabinet, told UOL's news website that Brazil would be harmed if the Venezuelan crisis turned into a military phase. Under cover of anonymity, they said that if a war broke out, their country would be at a great disadvantage in the face of the war capability is unrelated to its ally the United States and its potential enemies, Russia and China.