The abduction of Venezuela’s president signals a world where power is replacing law, and impunity is setting the pace.

The United States’ abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his palace is not an isolated incident or the beginning of a passing chaos; it is an extension of unjust policies that have led and continue to lead to a single outcome: the disintegration of the world order established since the end of World War II.

Before that, and over the past two years, the world witnessed Israeli genocide in Gaza: the killing of civilians, starvation, displacement, and collective punishment. At first, these crimes were shocking and contrary to everything the world had known about human rights and ethics in conflicts, yet the leaders and soldiers of the occupation went unpunished. On the contrary, they received wide political, military, and material support and became capable of pressuring human rights institutions and the United Nations to prevent them from speaking out about these crimes.

The Gaza war was an opportunity for the world to uphold the system of values and ethics that had prevailed for decades. Yet Israel’s and global powers’ handling of the genocide, and the absence of accountability, served as an explicit announcement of the international system’s failure and the collapse of its moral framework. The abduction of Maduro is the first link in a global chain of........

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