\n<\/p>\n
European leaders emerged divided and torn as they tried to welcome the ejection of Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian president, but still uphold the principles of international law that did not appear to allow Donald Trump to seize Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, let alone declare that the US will run Venezuela and control its oil industry.<\/p>\n
Europe tried to focus on the principle of a democratic transition, pointing out that the continent had not recognised Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela since what were widely regarded as fraudulent elections in June 2024.<\/p>\n
But Trump\u2019s rejection of the Nobel prize-winning Venezuelan opposition figurehead, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, was awkward. Trump said she did not have support or respect in Venezuela, but European leaders have embraced her as leading an opposition that deserves power.<\/p>\n
International lawyers say the US rejection of Maduro\u2019s legitimacy opens a path for Washington to argue that he does not enjoy sovereign immunity as a head of state in the US domestic courts, in the same way that George Bush was allowed to try Manuel Noriega in the US after his capture in 1989.<\/p>\n
US officials have claimed the operation against Venezuela was justified on the grounds of self-defence, arguing that the government was involved in drug-trafficking.<\/p>\n
The Yale professor of international law Oona Hathaway, however, said she saw no plausible justification under the UN charter for the US use of force. \u201cIf drug trafficking is a reasonable justification for attacking another country then a whole range of possible arguments can be made that basically mean that self-defence is no longer a real exception. It\u2019s the new rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Celebrations and protests take place around the world after Venezuela strikes \u2013\u00a0video<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that because drugs are coming from a country justifies an invasion and a change of administration in that country gets rid of any kind of limits on the use of force,\u201d she said. The US action was a breach of international law unlike any before, she said.<\/p>\n In a sign of Europe\u2019s discomfort, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, one of the 10 non-permanent countries on the UN security council, tried to close down discussion of Trump\u2019s methods. \u201cNicol\u00e1s Maduro presided over a brutal and repressive dictatorship that brought about unimaginable suffering on the Venezuelan people. The end of his regime offers new hope for the country,\u201d he wrote on social media, adding that \u201cthis is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions\u201d.<\/p>\n The closer ideological allies of Trump in Europe, such as the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, deemed the US operation legitimate, describing it as a \u201cdefensive intervention\u201d.<\/p>\n Criticism from others was possibly muffled for fear of attracting Trump\u2019s displeasure when his support for Ukraine is still considered vital. The EU foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, said: \u201cThe EU has repeatedly stated that Maduro lacks legitimacy, and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN charter must be respected. We call for restraint.\u201d<\/p>\n The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, also focused on what might happen next. \u201cWe stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people and support a peaceful and democratic transition. Any solution must respect international law and the charter of the United Nations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, also dived for cover. \u201cThe legal assessment of the US intervention is complex and requires careful consideration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/span>Nicol\u00e1s Maduro handcuffed and escorted by US federal agents \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n France too was circumspect. Without mentioning the US military operation, Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that the end of the \u201cMaduro dictatorship\u201d was something the Venezuelan people could \u201conly rejoice in\u201d, and called for a \u201cpeaceful and democratic transition\u201d led by Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, the opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential election. In an act of solidarity he also spoke to Machado.<\/p>\n The clearest critic was the French foreign minister, Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot, who said the operation to capture Maduro \u201cviolates the principle of non-use of force that underpins international law\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFrance reiterates that no lasting political solution can be imposed from the outside and that sovereign peoples alone decide their future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe repeated violations of this principle by nations entrusted with the primary responsibility as permanent members of the United Nations security council will have heavy consequences for world security, sparing no one.\u201d<\/p>\n Keir Starmer shed no tears over Maduro\u2019s departure and mentioned the importance of international law, but the UK prime minister did not discuss how it might apply in this instance.<\/p>\n Those who advocate for international law may now find themselves appealing to a vanishing world order in which Venezuela is the latest burial in an already crowded graveyard.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s actions cement a new system in which the naked self-interest of two or three \u201cgreat powers\u201d dominates. In this world order, Washington and Beijing will decide on the basis that might is right.<\/p>\n The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, explicitly threatened on Saturday that Cuba was next. \u201cCuba is a disaster, run by incompetent and senile men,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I were them, I would be a little worried.\u201d<\/p>\n The advocates of multilateralism and international courts may also need to reflect on their own failures.<\/p>\n Nizar El Fakih , a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said: \u201cMultilateralism did not deliver a single effective negotiation process leading to an orderly, peaceful and negotiated transition, despite years of appeals by millions of Venezuelans who voted, protested and exhausted every available civic mechanism at enormous personal cost.<\/p>\n \u201cThe international criminal court, with an investigation open since 2021, has yet to issue a single indictment, despite extensive documentation of crimes against humanity by the United Nations fact-finding mission on Venezuela, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and hundreds of victims\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" European leaders emerged divided and torn as they tried to welcome the ejection of Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian president, but still uphold the principles of international law that did not appear to allow Donald Trump to seize Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, let alone declare that the US will run Venezuela and control its oil industry. Europe tried to focus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[673,715,584,807,1435,1524,4723,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-40287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-european","10":"tag-face","11":"tag-leaders","12":"tag-order","13":"tag-torn","14":"tag-venezuela","15":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}