China and Russia were among some of the first states that quickly protested against the US capture of Venezuela’s dictator by citing “international law”. Socialist Latin American leaders, who all currently have a problematic relationship with President Donald Trump also condemned the military intervention. Communists worldwide and far-left movements are up in arms after one of their dictators was ousted and suddenly everyone is very concerned about international law.
A dangerous precedent has been set, some have said.
I very well understand that many politicians and leaders are now experiencing fear and preoccupation for the first time ever in their political role as they witness with their own eyes, that even them can be held accountable. Suddenly, international law has become a very convenient excuse to defend dictators and avoid accountability.
When was there ever a referee in the world who dictated how a country should adopt its democracy? Are there a set of rules and parameters which dictate how a nation and a people should strive for its democratic state? The Venezuelans seem to be very happy about the US military intervention, and in fact, this may probably make the US operation fully legal and compliant with international law.
Nicolás Maduro was not recognised as the legitimate President of Venezuela, neither by the US nor by the EU countries. Therefore, Maduro can be considered just an ordinary citizen who happens to live in Venezuela. Technically, the US would not have violated international law if its operation was conducted with the permission of Venezuela’s President, and the legitimate President of Venezuela is Edmundo Gonzalez. Indeed, President Edmundo Gonzalez seems to be satisfied about the operation and stated that he looks forward for Venezuela’s reconstruction.
President Trump may have broken local US laws by failing to obtain Congressional approval but this is a US matter. The US did not break any international laws if its operation was approved by the official Venezuelan leadership.
Venezuelans, who have lived in tyranny and economic chaos for twenty years, with many of them forced to leave their country, are being patronised by foreigners who are telling them that the US is only interested in their oil. It was in Buenos Aires where a Venezuelan migrant rebutted these claims by saying and “Do you think the Russians and Chinese were in Venezuela for the recipe of arepas?”Venezuelan rapper with the stage name Neblinna said that Venezuelans don’t even have cooking oil for themselves as the nation’s oil is looted by Russia, China and Cuba.
It’s as if in the West, we have a cross-party and ideological movement that has members both in the far-right and the far-left that hate the West and prefer if natural resources and strategic regions are controlled by totalitarian states like Russia and China – yes, indeed we have this movement.
This is the same movement which remained silent about Vladimir Putin’s war crimes. There are no legal precedents in the US military intervention in Venezuela because this kind of event has already been undertaken repeatedly and tested in history. And very few were previously bothered by the fact that Maduro murdered and imprisoned his own people. Clearly, all the protestations being made are not factoring in the Venezuelan people.
So, no wonder that the people outraged by the fact that Venezuelans are getting their democracy in an unusual way, are uninterested in the daily violations of international law committed by Russia in Europe.
And for those celebrating with their Venezuelan friends their dawn of freedom, here is yet again, the historic clip of the Venezuelan dictator being paraded on a New York airstrip by the DEA.
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