What the US did in Venezuela normalises power grabs: Expert
The abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro was an attack by the United States that skirted not only international law but also US political limits, an analyst says.
US President Donald Trump is “bypassing … international law. He’s bypassing Venezuelan law, … and he doesn’t seem to give a damn about what the people of Venezuela really think or want,” Barakat said.
Trump-era policies and rhetoric have “mutated” US politics as nationalism has intensified and Christianity has become more entwined with governance – trends that will distort the existing international order, he added.
The US bombed Venezuela on Saturday, abducting Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and taking them to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
Trump said the US will “run” Venezuela and tap its oil wealth, the clear reason behind the attack, couched in flimsy law enforcement rhetoric, according to Barakat.
The illegality of Trump’s action
International law is clear on what the US did, Barakat said: It’s illegal.
A state cannot seize or remove the leader of another sovereign state unless the United Nations Security Council authorises the use of force under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
The 2011 intervention in Libya when the country’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi was deposed had Security Council authorisation.
“But even then, it should not [have been] at all about regime change. It [can only be] in defence of a prosecuted people … to prevent genocide, to prevent crimes against humanity,” Barakat said.
In Iraq, a US-led coalition invoked what turned out to be unfounded allegations of weapons of mass destruction as justification to invade the country and topple President Saddam Hussein without initial UN authorisation.
Yet “when they captured [Hussein], they did not attempt to extract him from Iraq. They tried him inside Iraq,” he said.
Post‑9/11, Barakat said, international law has allowed cross‑border actions against “terrorist groups” when such actions are used to prevent “terrorist operations” in the acting state’s territory.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump for New Year’s Eve, there were discussions between the pair attempting to link Maduro to Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian groups in the hopes he could be labelled under the US Terrorism Act, which Barakat called tenuous attempts to “borrow” legitimacy from existing counterterrorism mechanisms.
