Australia should not lie in bed with a shameless dictator like Trump
The US president should be met with strength, not with “fear, fawning and appeasement”.
Opinion
January 4, 2026 — 4.30pm
January 4, 2026 — 4.30pm
President Donald Trump’s brazen attack on Venezuela has violated the most sacred rule of international law – the near-century old ban on use of military force against another country. It returns the Americas to an era of gunboat diplomacy by imperial warlords.
The attack is such a serious use of force that it amounts to an “armed attack” under the United Nations Charter, giving Venezuela a legal right of self-defence.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at New York’s Westside Heliport, wearing a hoodie and handcuffs, makes a peace sign.Credit: Bloomberg
The responsible US political leaders and military commanders could also be personally liable for the international crime of aggression.
Every Venezuelan life lost as a result of illegal aggression also involves a violation of the human right to life by the US.
The illegal abductions of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are further breaches of international law. There is no right to “arrest” any criminal suspect in a foreign country without the consent of its government. As a head of government, Maduro also enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution in the US courts.
To be sure, the authoritarian Maduro government is of questionable legitimacy following serious electoral fraud and a history of serious human rights violations.
The contrast with Western condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is staggering.
Yet international law does not permit forcible regime change at the whim of another government. Combating drug trafficking or so-called “narco-terrorists”, or seizing quasi-colonial control of foreign oil resources, are also not legitimate reasons to use force. International law rightly values peace, stability and the protection of human life over violent imperial opportunism and regional hegemony.
The US attack is the culmination of a year-long campaign to destabilise Venezuela, including the recent illegal blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, a strike on a port, covert action by the CIA and the bogus listing of Venezuelan cartels as “terrorists”, including one, Cartel de Los Soles, that the US alleged was headed by Maduro himself.