US President Donald Trump said on Saturday morning that US forces had carried out what he called a “massive attack” against Venezuela, capturing its President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The couple have now been charged with terrorism and drugs in New York. Trump accused Maduro of leading a “narco-terrorist organization.”
Read also | Live updates from Venezuela: China calls on US to ‘immediately release’ Maduro.
Maduro was captured in strikes inside Venezuela on Saturday, a move that marked a sharp escalation after weeks of rising tensions and speculation about possible US action. According to the New York Times, President Trump has deployed a formidable military force in the Caribbean over the past few months to threaten Venezuela. But on Saturday, President Trump dramatically escalated his campaign by capturing Maduro.
“More than ten years of killing, sexual violence, but still”
Maduro, who has served as Venezuela’s president since 2013, has been described by many as “undemocratic” and “repressive”. The New York Times said in an editorial on Saturday that it called Trump’s attack on Venezuela “illegal and unwise.” She cited a recent United Nations report detailing more than a decade of killings, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention of supporters of Maduro’s political opponents in the Latin American nation.
Maduro is also accused of disrupting Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, in addition to fueling economic and political disruption across the region. The legality of the US operation that captured him and his wife has even prompted Trump’s allies to suggest that international law had been violated.
Is US action in Venezuela justified under international law? Experts who spoke to global media suggested that the US action likely violated the terms of the UN charter, which was signed in October 1945 and was supposed to prevent another conflict on the scale of World War II.
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter states that states must refrain from using military force against other countries. “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations,” the article reads.
The United Nationssaid Saturday that President Trump’s move sets a dangerous precedent for the world.
“The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations Charter,” Geoffrey Robertson KC, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, told the Guardian.
“He committed the crime of aggression, which the Nuremberg Tribunal called the highest crime, the worst crime of all,” says Robertson KC, who is also a former president of the UN war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone.
Read also | Bombing in Venezuela: Trump and Dan Caine detail the US operation that captured Maduro
International law experts told Reuters that the Trump administration muddled the legal issues by arguing that the operation was both a targeted law enforcement mission and a potential prelude to long-term US control of Venezuela.
“You can’t say this was a law enforcement operation and then turn around and say now we have to run the country,” Jeremy Paul, a professor at Northeastern University who specializes in constitutional law, told the agency.
In an interview with the Guardian, Elvira Domínguez-Redondo, a professor of international law at Kingston University, described the operation as “a crime of aggression and the illegal use of force against another country.” Susan Breau, another professor of international law and senior research associate at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, agreed that the attack could only be considered legal if the US had a UN Security Council resolution or acted in self-defense.
“No coherent explanation yet offered”
“There is no evidence on any of these fronts,” Breau told the Guardian.
The NYT editorial, which criticized the operation, said President Trump has yet to offer a comprehensive explanation for his actions in Venezuela. “He is pushing our country into an international crisis for no good reason. If Mr. Trump wants to argue otherwise, the Constitution explains what he must do: Go to Congress. Without Congressional approval, his actions violate US law,” the amendment reads.
The US Congress has the power to declare war, but the president is commander-in-chief, and presidents of both parties have justified taking military action when it was limited in scope and in the national interest, Reuters reported.
Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, said in an interview published last year with Vanity Fair magazine that if President Trump were to authorize “any activities on land” in Venezuela, he would need congressional approval.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Congress was not informed before Saturday’s operation.
How did the US justify the operation?
At a news conference, President Trump accused Venezuela of stealing US oil interests and said Washington would take them back and planned to run Venezuela for a period of time, without offering specifics.
US authorities said the Justice Department had asked for military help in capturing Maduro, who was indicted by a New York grand jury along with his wife, son, two political leaders and an alleged international gang leader. They were charged with crimes related to terrorism, drugs and weapons.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that the defendants “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Past incidents?
The US has detained criminal suspects in foreign countries, including Libya, but only with the consent of local authorities. Washington has not yet recognized another Venezuelan leader who could authorize the capture of Maduro, Reuters reported.
Read also | When Venezuela’s Maduro dared “coward Trump” to arrest him
In 1989, under similar circumstances, the US arrested General Manuel Noriega, the then leader of Panama. Noriega was indicted on drug-related charges and Washington said he was acting to protect US citizens after Panamanian forces killed a US soldier.
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was extradited to the United States in 2022 and later convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned Hernandez in December.
She committed the crime of aggression, which the Nuremberg court described as the highest crime.
“While Mr. Trump was attacking Venezuelan boats, he also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, who ran a massive drug operation while he was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022,” the NYT editorial said.
(With input from NYT, Guardian and Reuters)
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