Brazil President Michel Temer has signed a decree to send the army to "guarantee law and order" on the border with crisis-hit Venezuela after recent violent clashes.
Earlier this month, more than a thousand homeless Venezuelan immigrants who had flooded over the border into Brazil's northwestern Roraima state were driven back by an angry mob that rampaged through their makeshift tent following rumours a local shopkeeper had been brutally beaten by migrants.
Temer said his measure was aimed at providing "security for Brazilian citizens but also Venezuelan immigrants fleeing their country."
He also branded Venezuela's crisis as "tragic," saying it "threatens the harmony of practically the entire continent."