Brazil will send a national guard near the border with Venezuela | News on tensions between the United States and Venezuela

Tensions are rising as Brazil strengthens its northern border following U.S. airstrikes in Venezuela and the kidnapping of its President Nicolas Maduro.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazil plans to send National Guard troops to northern Roraima state, which borders Venezuela and has a strong presence of illegal armed groups that illegally traffic drugs and mines on both sides of the international border, according to a government decree.

In an official decree issued Thursday, the government authorized the dispatch of an unspecified number of soldiers from the National Public Security Force (FNSP) to Pacaraima, as well as to Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, approximately 213 kilometers from the border.

The move comes after the United States bombed Venezuela on Saturday and kidnapped its president, Nicolas Maduro. Sunday, Brazil temporarily closed its border with Venezuela near Pacaraima.

The decree specifies that the FNSP will support the state’s public security agencies and act in a manner “essential to the preservation of public order and the security of persons and property.”

Brazilian media reported on Wednesday that Venezuela was strengthening its military presence on the border and that several armed groups, including Venezuelan colectivos and Brazilian gangs such as the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV), are operating in the region.

Gimena Sanchez, director of the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) in the Andes, told Al Jazeera that Brazil’s deployment of border guard troops is an “appropriate decision.” She said violence caused by Colombian rebel groups active in Venezuela is pushing the population further south toward Brazil.

She added that “it makes sense [for Brazil] to strengthen the border,” but noted that there has still been no mass displacement of Venezuelans.

Brazil strongly criticized the American attacks. On social media platform X, its president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said the United States had crossed an “unacceptable line.”

Asked whether President Lula’s comments could provoke Washington, Sánchez responded that the United States is currently most concerned about Cuba, Mexico and Colombia. “Given this context and the fact that some European countries have also condemned it, I do not think that Brazil risks being the center of the anger of the Trump administration,” she concluded.