As the beleaguered country of Venezuela staggers toward dictatorship, a threat by President Donald Trump to use the American military, if necessary, against President Nicolas Maduro has stoked anger and disappointment across Latin America.

Threatening military action in this way undermines Latin American consensus in support of democracy, which was unanimously approved when the Chilean dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet ended.

The dispute began when Trump, speaking with reporters about a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons, suddenly added Venezuela to his list of countries where, he said he was considering military intervention. Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil voiced their concern at such a drastic declaration.

An often ugly history of US military interventions is vividly remembered by Latin America even as Trump seems to have forgotten all about it. Under the good leadership of the ever-popular Barack Obama, however, Washington aimed to get past the conflicts by building wider consensus over regional disputes.

Trump is pursuing a more aggressive path on his own, first with threats against North Korea and now towards Venezuela. While very few people expected him to actually order an attack, much of the damage was already done for American diplomacy.

Trump’s comments, as usual, appeared to be a sudden reckless outburst that was not thought through. It puts him and the US in the position of the ‘bully’ versus other smaller countries.