European leaders are divided and torn as they tried to welcome the ejection of Venezuela’s authoritarian president, but still uphold the principles of international law that did not appear to allow Donald Trump to seize Nicolás Maduro -- not to mention their oil. Via The Guardian:
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.
But Trump’s rejection of the Nobel prize-winning Venezuelan opposition figurehead, María 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.
International lawyers say the US rejection of Maduro’s 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.
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.
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. “If 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’s the new rule.”
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