A US invasion or attack on Venezuela could plunge South America into a Vietnam-style conflict, the chief foreign policy adviser to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , has warned.

In an interview with the Guardian, Celso Amorim called Donald Trump’s recent decision to order the closure of Venezuelan airspace “an act of war”, and voiced fears the crisis could intensify over the coming weeks.

“The last thing we want is for South America to become a war zone – and a war zone that would inevitably not just be a war between the US and Venezuela . It would end up having global involvement and this would be really unfortunate,” said Amorim, a veteran diplomat and former minister in the first two of Lula’s three terms.

“If there was an invasion, a real invasion … I think undoub

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