Brazil Leader Says Venezuela Crisis Won't End in 'Peaceful Way'

The political crisis in Venezuela, where a U.S.-backed opposition leader has claimed the presidency from Nicolas Maduro, won't end "in a peaceful way," Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro predicted.

But Brazil is currently "at the limit of what we can do to restore democracy in that country," Bolsonaro told the Brazilian network Record TV in an interview late Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where he was attending the World Economic Forum.

Brazil was on Wednesday one of the first countries, after the United States, to recognize the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-held parliament, Juan Guaido, as self-proclaimed interim leader of his crisis-wracked country.

The declaration, also backed by Argentina, Canada, Chile and Peru and another six countries in the region but rejected by Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, has triggered fears that Venezuela could descend into violence.

Bolsonaro's comment appeared to discard the possibility of Brazilian military intervention.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered U.S. diplomats out and called on his military to rally around him, while U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has warned "all options" are on the table if forceful moves were made against Guaido and the opposition.

"History has shown that dictatorships don't give up power to the opposition in a peaceful way," said Bolsonaro, a far-right former paratrooper who openly admires Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

"We are watching the actions of the (Venezuelan) government, or I should say Maduro dictatorship," he said.

"Obviously there are strong countries ready for other consequences, as was recently announced by the Trump government," but Brazil, for the moment, was simply "watching with great attention," Bolsonaro said.

Bolsonaro's vice president, retired general Hamilton Mourao, who stayed in Brazil as acting president, told reporters on Wednesday that "our foreign policy is to not intervene in the domestic affairs of another country."