A US invasion or attack on Venezuela could lead to a Vietnam-style war in South America, said Celso Amorim, foreign policy adviser to Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In an interview with the Guardian, Amorim called US President Donald Trump’s order to close Venezuelan airspace “an act of war”. He warned that a conflict would not be just between the US and Venezuela but involve other countries. Amorim said, “If there was an invasion, a real invasion … I think undoubtedly you would see something similar to Vietnam – on what scale it’s impossible to say.” He added that even those opposing Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro might unite against foreign intervention. Amorim recalled South America’s history of fighting foreign invaders and predicted a rise in anti-American feeling if the US attacks. Since August, the US has increased pressure on Maduro’s regime with a $50 million bounty on him, large naval deployments, and airstrikes killing over 80 people. After Trump closed Venezuela’s airspace last month, most airlines stopped flights there. Reports say Trump gave Maduro a week in November to resign, but Maduro has not stepped down. Brazil has not accepted Maduro’s claim of winning the 2024 election and does not support forced regime change. Amorim said, “If every questionable election triggered an invasion, the world would be on fire.” He stressed Brazil would not push Maduro to quit. Speculation about Maduro’s exile includes Cuba, Turkey, Qatar, Russia, and possibly Brazil, though Amorim avoided encouraging this idea. Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Venezuela would not turn into “another Iraq or Libya.” Amorim hopes Trump might agree to a negotiated solution with Maduro and cited Brazil’s slow return to democracy as a model. He suggested a recall referendum, like Venezuela’s 2004 vote, as a way to ease tensions. Maduro refused to publish full voting results from last year’s poll, which his opponent Edmundo González claimed to have won. Relations between Brazil and Venezuela are now less close than before.