wp-cli: Error establishing a database connection

If I run the command:

# wp site archive 149 --allow-root

I get: “Error establishing a database connection”

If I run this command it works fine:

# wp db query 'SHOW TABLES' --allow-root | more
Tables_in_blogs
wp_1002_layerslider
wp_1004_podpress_statcounts
wp_1004_podpress_stats
wp_1008_fs_data
wp_1008_fs_visits
.....

The database is not in the same server where wordpress is installed.