A
few thoughts on the Trump administration’s military operation—initiated
early on Saturday morning—in Venezuela, which led to the capture of
that country’s president , Nicolas Maduro (and his wife). Maduro has
been brought to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking and charges
related to terrorism, or “narco-terrorism.”
But
the administration has provided no evidence that ties Maduro to these
acts or that they pose a clear and present danger to the United States
that could be stopped only by an armed attack on what is a sovereign
country, albeit one that has numerous problems, including drug gangs and
authoritarian rule. But those problems hardly justify what Tump has
just done
Its hard to square Trump’s action with any provision in international
law that authorizes states to wage war for purposes of self-defense
against an external armed attack. Venezuela has never threatened to
attack the United States (and lacks the capacity to do so), let alone
attacked it. It’s the other way around: the US has attacked Venezuela
and taken previous steps generally resorted to in wartime, such as a
naval blockade on oil tankers entering or exiting that country.
Trump
has offered a Constitutional justification for his action, namely that
as Commander-in-Chief, he is obligated to protect American personnel.
But he has not offered any evidence that US personnel have been attacked
by Venezuela or faced the imminent danger of being attacked.
Trump
has alleged that Venezuelan drug traffickers, with Maduro complicity,
are flooding the US with fentanyl. This claim has no basis in fact.
Virtually all (98%) of the fentanyl entering this country is trafficked
by Mexican cartels, from Mexican soil.
Trump
has said repeatedly said that Venezuela “previously stole” oil and
land that belonged to the US and that he is acting to get these “assets”
back. This claim has no factual basis.
Trump
claims that Maduro is directly linked to the Tren de Aragua drug
trafficking organization. For this, too, the administration has offered
allegations—but no proof.
We
should be concerned about what Trump has just done in Venezuela because
he has also said that the United States is “locked and loaded and ready
to go” to attack Iran if the Tehran government continues to repress the
ongoing anti-government protests in Iran.
It
is ironic that a President who campaigned on a promise to end the
“forever wars” and serial interventions of the past in order to focus on
festering domestic problems, seems intent on doing more of the former
rather than the latter.