CARACAS/LIMA (Dispatches) -- Latin America came out strongly against U.S. threats of military action against Venezuela.
The sudden escalation of Washington's response to Venezuela's crisis preceded U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's trip to the region beginning Sunday. He is set to visit Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Panama.
Trump did not specify what type of options he had in mind.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said the United States would experience 15 times as many difficulties as it suffered in the Vietnam War if it went ahead with the threat.
"Threatening our country, our people, our Latin America, our Caribbean, with a military intervention, is not only unprecedented and unusual, but deeply hostile, disrespectful, condemnable, abject,” Arreaza said.
Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Friday disparaged Trump's warning as "craziness" and Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Saturday Venezuela rejected "hostile" threats, calling on Latin America to unite against Washington.
"We want to express gratitude for all the expressions of solidarity and rejection of the use of force from governments around the world, including Latin America," said Arreaza, in a short speech on Saturday.
"Some of these countries have recently taken positions absolutely contrary to our sovereignty and independence but still have rejected the declarations of the U.S. president."
It was one of President Nicolas Maduro's fiercest critics, Peru, that led the charge in criticizing Trump's threat, saying it was against United Nations principles. Mexico and Colombia joined in with statements of their own.
Regional alliance Mercosur added that it rejected the use of force against Venezuela, despite having indefinitely suspended the country last week after Venezuelans voted for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.
Peru expelled Venezuela's ambassador in Lima on Friday, but that did not stop it from criticizing Trump's threat.
"All foreign or domestic threats to resort to force undermine the goal of reinstating democratic governance in Venezuela, as well as the principles enshrined in the UN charter," said Peru's Foreign Minister Ricardo Luna.
More than 120 people have died in unrest and anti-government protests since April.
Venezuela's Information Minister Vladimir Villegas on Saturday tweeted a picture of the Statue of Liberty holding a machine gun instead of a torch, and a link to an article describing, "A Chronology of U.S. 'Military Options' in Latam and the Caribbean."