Let's be clear eyed about this. He's a tuppenny autocrat. Plasters his face and name over everything. Boasts and brags about himself and his achievements, many of which have been ruinous for his own people. He goes after critics and political rivals relentlessly and is not afraid to use the machinery of state to silence them. And he's a criminal.

Login or signup to continue reading

I could be talking about Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro, now facing a long list of charges in the US. But I'm not. I'm talking about the man who ordered his abduction from Caracas: US President Donald Trump.

Trump's rap sheet is there in black and white: 34 felony convictions. The charges against Maduro are yet to be tested in court. And the means by which he was detained and whisked out of Venezuela were themselves illegal. Not that legal niceties like the UN Charter or international law have ever stopped the US from embarking on reckless adventurism, in Latin America or wherever else oil is involved.

From the United Fruit Company coup in Guatemala to the Bay of Pigs disaster in Cuba to the invasions of Grenada, Panama and Iraq, the US has routinely flipped the bird at international law and conventions. There's a dismal familiarity about this latest foray but also one glaring difference.

In a rare display of honesty, Trump has made no secret of his motivation: he wants Venezuela's oil. No lofty talk of democratic freedoms. No mention of human rights. Not even a change of government. Trump went as far as to dismiss the possibility of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado leading the country. (Nothing to do with her winning the Nobel Peace Prize he so publicly coveted. Nothing at all. *Cough.*)

None of this is to say there's a shred of sympathy for Maduro. His repression of all opposition, his rigged elections and his corruption all marked him for a downfall, just not in the way it transpired.

Any grief is reserved for what's left of the rules-based international order. The scale and duration might not be the same (yet - how it plays out is yet to be seen) but, legally, there is no difference between Trump's intervention in Venezuela and Putin's in Ukraine.

The snatching of Maduro and the stated intention with no detail that the US would now "run" Venezuela sets a horrible precedent that's rattling leaders across the world, particularly in Denmark.

Trump has again flagged his desire to take control of Greenland from Denmark which raises the unthinkable spectre of one NATO country seizing territory from another, a move that would invoke Article 5, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all. Explicit threats have also been made against Colombia. An era of chaos has been ushered in.

The world watched in horror when Putin annexed Crimea in 2014. It was appalled when he launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But will it be........

© Canberra Times