US Actions in Venezuela Challenge International Norms

US Actions in Venezuela Under Scrutiny

The removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is viewed by analysts as a direct attack by the United States that disregards not only international law but also the internal political boundaries of the US. This is seen as part of a "new imperialist era" of the United States, centered around strategic interests and oil, potentially normalizing similar actions by other powers, claims Sultan Barakat, a senior professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Public Policy College in Qatar, in an interview with Al Jazeera.

According to Barakat, the policies and rhetoric of the Trump era have "shifted" American policies, escalating nationalism and intertwining Christianity with governance, trends that could distort the existing international order. He emphasized that the intervention this past weekend, during which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were abducted and brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges, was motivated by the desire to access Venezuela's oil wealth.

Barakat pointed out that Trump's actions are clearly illegal, stating that a country cannot remove the leader of another sovereign nation without authorization from the UN Security Council. Unlike the 2011 intervention in Libya, which had such authorization, actions in Venezuela could set a dangerous precedent in international politics.

Amid these events, critics argue that US actions test the limits of international norms and could have unforeseen consequences in other regions, such as the Middle East, where Israel has conducted abductions to eliminate its own enemies. Such actions could provide other states, like Russia and China, with justifications for similar interventions in the future.