Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo forecast Wednesday a peaceful change of regime in neighbouring Venezuela while ruling out a military option, in an interview with AFP in Rome.

A supporter of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, Araujo said he hoped efforts to get Venezuelan military units to back Guaido would bear fruit.

"There is a movement, a dynamic. It's perhaps longer than we would like but it is solid," Araujo, speaking in French, said at the beginning of a European tour.

A week ago, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Guaido had not failed in his bid to overthrow the leftist regime of Nicolas Maduro, saying a "crack" has been opened that could bring down the government.

Araujo began his European visit in Rome with a message of reassurance for leaders wary of Bolsonaro's diplomatic and environmental intentions.

He told AFP that the world sometimes had a "very superficial vision" of the far-right Brazilian leader, who he stressed was backed by a majority in the giant Latin American country.

Araujo said that dire forecasts of a spike in violence following Bolsonaro's victory had proved wrong, and that the murder rate had fallen by 25 percent since the president took office on January 1.

Recent opinion polls show a sharp drop in the president's approval ratings since the election, although just over half of those polled still back him.

- 'Respectful' of Brazil's environment -

The foreign minister also sought to present Brazil as a country that respected its unique environment, that was fighting against deforestation and promoting "a modern agriculture that does not occupy tropical forest zones.

"There are studies that show clearly, contrary to what is sometimes said, that the occupation of land by agriculture is very respectful of the environment," he insisted.

According to the non-governmental organisation Imazon, deforestation that had fallen sharply in the Amazon basin from 2004 to 2012, rose by 54 percent in January compared with the same month a year earlier.

The foreign minister said Brazil had no intention of reneging on its commitment to the Paris climate agreement even though the government felt it contained protectionist measures with respect to the country's agricultural sector.

In addition to Italy, Araujo is to visit Poland and Hungary, all countries with governments that share rightwing political ideologies with the current regime in Brazil.

In Rome he met with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League that is the dominant partner in a ruling coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).

Navy to deploy hospital ship USNS Comfort in response to crises in Venezuela
Washington (UPI) May 8, 2019 - The U.S. Navy will send a hospital ship to help Venezuelan refugees, Vice President Mike Pence announced.

"At the President's direction, the United States Navy will deploy the USNS Comfort to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America this June," Pence said at the State Department's annual Washington Conference on the Americas on Tuesday. "The Comfort will embark on a five-month humanitarian mission to address the Venezuelan crisis."

The ship is a non-combatant hospital vessel staffed by officers of the Navy's Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Medical Service Corps, Nurse Corps and Chaplain Corps, and enlisted Hospital Corpsman personnel. It will primarily visit areas hosting Venezuelan refugees who have fled their country's economic and political hardships. Pence, in his speech, said that at least three million people have left Venezuela and the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

"The USNS Comfort represents our enduring promise to our partners in the Western Hemisphere, our shared neighborhood," Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said in a statement. "U.S. Southern Command is committed to the region in support of our Caribbean and Latin American partners, as well as displaced Venezuelans who continue to flee the brutal oppression of the former Maduro regime and its interlocking, man-made political, economic and humanitarian crises."

The U.S. has provided more than $256 million to the region in humanitarian and development assistance, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said on Tuesday, adding that more will be needed as the country suffers through violence, economic insecurity, hyperinflation, and shortages of food, medicines and essential services.

The ship's deployment will be its seventh in the region since 2007, and its second in the Western Hemisphere in the past six months. A Chinese Navy hospital ship, the Peace Ark, visited Venezuela in September 2018 as part of an 11-country tour.

Colombia blasts Venezuela over alleged military incursion
Bogota (AFP) May 8, 2019 - Colombia hit out at neighbor Venezuela on Wednesday for "repeated provocations" after claiming around 30 military personnel crossed into its territory.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said the Venezuelan unit crossed 200 meters into northeastern Colombia.

They were "identified by locals as belonging to the Bolivarian Armed Forces, at the service of the (Nicolas) Maduro regime, who remained for around 20 minutes," the statement said.

The Venezuelan military personnel left the area when they noticed the arrival of a helicopter carrying Colombian soldiers, "who were sent to attend to calls from the community denouncing acts of intimidation."

The statement said Colombia's military was "ready to defend (its) territorial integrity, while always maintaining the necessary prudence in the face of these clear and repeated provocations that aim only to incite a response to make Colombia look like the aggressor."

Bogota frequently complains of territorial incursions by the Venezuelan military.

The two countries' border is 2,200 kilometer (1,400 mile) long, difficult to access and largely lawless, with armed groups including drug traffickers, left-wing guerrillas and paramilitaries operating along it.

Caracas broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota in February after Colombia became one of the more than 50 countries to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.

Relations between the two countries have been poor since 2017, with Colombia bearing the brunt of its neighbor's economic crisis that has seen more than 2.7 million people flee the country, according to the United Nations.

Colombia President Ivan Duque has called his counterpart Maduro a "dictator."

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