Brazil's far-left Lula warns US intervention in Venezuela could be "catastrophic"

Lula and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the leftist leaders of Latin America's two largest economies, had already urged restraint this week, as tensions escalated.

But on Saturday, during a summit of the South American Mercosur bloc in Foz do Iguaçu, a city in southern Brazil, Lula made a stronger statement against what he said would be a "dangerous precedent for the world".

More than four decades after the Falklands War, between Argentina and Britain, he added, "the South American continent is once again haunted by the military presence of an extra-regional power."