Even by the exalted standards of the US military and its precision bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the forced removal and transfer to the US of Nicolas Maduro, the sitting President of Venezuela, awed. But it also shocked.

Violation of sovereignty and law

This was not a regime change engineered by intelligence agencies but a violation of international law and respect for the sovereignty of nations, not to mention disregard for the US constitutional requirement of keeping Congress informed. Rightly, it raises serious concerns not only in the US’s hegemonic domain of the Americas but across the world.

Narcotics charges as justification

Venezuelan involvement in the narcotics trade and President Maduro’s indictment in a US court on those counts is the stated reason for the action, which was billed by the Secretary of State as law enforcement, no matter US military boots on Venezuelan ground. But by all accounts, Venezuela is hardly the big narcotics player.

Democracy argument rings hollow

And the usual pretext — human rights violations and restoration of democracy — does not appear to carry the day either. Indeed, President Trump said that the leader of the opposition, Maria Machado, who was recently conferred the Nobel Peace Prize, did not have much “respect........

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