{"id":222074,"date":"2026-01-05T18:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222074\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:38:07","slug":"trumps-lawless-actions-in-venezuela-demand-a-resolute-response-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222074\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s lawless actions in Venezuela demand a resolute response | Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s own description of US actions in Venezuela \u2013 that it will \u201crun\u201d the country, remaining until Washington decides a political transition has occurred, and installing US oil companies to control production \u2013 outlines conduct that is plainly illegal under international law and sets a dangerous precedent (Donald Trump warns of \u2018big price to pay\u2019 if Caracas fails to toe line, 4 January<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The UN charter prohibits the use or threat of force against another state, except in self-defence or with security council authorisation. Neither applies here. However illegitimate a government may be, regime change by invasion, occupation or foreign administration is unlawful. That rule exists precisely to prevent powerful states imposing political outcomes by force.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s words amount to an admission of occupation. Under the Hague regulations and Geneva conventions, an occupying power may not assume sovereign authority, dictate political outcomes, or exploit natural resources. To do so constitutes pillage \u2013 a war crime. The UN secretary general has already warned that international law has not been respected.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Keir Starmer\u2019s response \u2013 welcoming the end of Maduro\u2019s regime while declining to condemn the use of force \u2013 risks treating legality as conditional on political approval, rather than as a binding rule. As a human rights barrister, whose legal opinion in 2015 was that the Iraq war was illegal as it had no UN resolution authorising it, he should know better.<\/p>\n

This matters far beyond Venezuela<\/a>. The case against Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine rests on the same principle: borders and\u00a0governments cannot be changed by force. If Venezuela is treated as an exception, that principle collapses. International law cannot\u00a0be\u00a0selective.
Hannah Walker
Wymondham, Leicestershire<\/p>\n

I feel, and share, Nesrine Malik\u2019s anger (Trump\u2019s coup in Venezuela didn\u2019t just break the rules \u2013 it showed there aren\u2019t any. We\u2019ll all regret that, 5 January<\/a>). But what is the right response? Righteous indignation is all very well, but will do nothing to combat such hostile supremacy. The UK is in no position to confront any of these tyrannical superpowers and our choice of allies is limited. The principles of international law that have secured some kind of world order for the past 80 years are being openly ignored and the UN is toothless in the face of leaders who are so openly contemptuous of an ethos of collaboration and democratic freedom.<\/p>\n

The only possible route to an effective challenge to Trump et al is surely for Europe, with other nations around the world such as Canada, South Africa and Australia, to get its act together and form an alternative alliance with sufficient defence and trading powers to provide real opposition.<\/p>\n

But with Europe so divided, and resources so constrained, the pace at which that is progressing is alarmingly slow. That is where we need to be directing our anger, and we should use our democratic rights of protest (while we still have some) to bang our collective leaders\u2019 heads together and push as hard as we can for such an alliance.
Celia Cashman
Sheffield<\/p>\n

Why do you say Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s was \u201ccaptured\u201d by US troops? This seizure is better described as an abduction or a kidnap. If any country other than the US had invaded a foreign country, killing civilians in the process, and carried off the head of state, then that is how it would have been described.
Charlie Owen
London<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s own description of US actions in Venezuela \u2013 that it will \u201crun\u201d the country, remaining until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-222074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}