President Donald Trump launched the new year with a typically spooky bang, striking massive airspots in Venezuela and reportedly capturing Nicolas Maduro, the country’s president, who has apparently been taken to an undisclosed location.
Given Trump’s history of using force wherever he goes without regard for the rule or for his own pledge to end international hostilities, the attack comes as a surprise.
Trump has been talking for months about the possibility of more US military action against Venezuela, as the US has apparently bombed boats deliberately off the country’s coast in the name of drug trafficking.
This has resulted in numerous extrajudicial killings and widespread war crimes accusations. But hey, it’s all in a day’s work for a government that cares little about human rights and other such ridiculous ideas when it comes to legal justification for its behavior.
Trump has also released blissfully ridiculous  allegations that Venezuela has stolen US oil, land, and other assets, while Trump has hijacked a number of oil tankers.
This most recent act of US aggression comes after decades of US sanctions that have severely harmed Venezuela’s economy and created a form of self-defense. Former UN special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated that 100 000 Venezuelans had already perished as a direct result of coercive economic measures in 2020.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed him that Maduro had been detained to face criminal charges in the United States and that the US military personnel who were executing the arrest warrant were required to protect them.
This narrative falls far short, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to make Maduro the most recent international bogeyman and existential menace. Objectively speaking, the US is far more criminally resolute than the bumbling Maduro.
Similar to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whose leader has repeatedly received praise from US presidents over the past two years for the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
No one in Washington would ever suggest that Netanyahu should be imprisoned in the US, which prefers to hurl billions of dollars at Israel’s military in order to aid in the mass slaughter.
Venezuela, which is oil-rich, has long been a thorn in the US empire, starting with Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor, who preached dangerous anti-capitalist ideas like universal healthcare.
The Trump administration is now accusing Maduro of being the head of “narcoterrorism,” which would be absurd if it hadn’t led to such massive destruction and a flagrant violation of international law.
Trump is hardly the only US president to have engaged in flagrantly illegal behavior abroad, despite his attempts to add a dramatic layer of dementedness to everything he does.
One recalls the case of late Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who remained on the CIA’s payroll for years despite the US government being aware of his drug trafficking activities.
The US turned on Noriega when he stopped being regarded as a valuable anti-communist ally in the 1980s, spontaneously transforming him into a face of evil.
Up to a thousand civilians were killed in the impoverished El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama in December 1989 when President George H. W. Bush launched a patently insane attack there.
After a brief stay at the Vatican embassy in the Panamanian capital was rendered inhospitable by the US tanks parked outside, Noriega was eventually taken prisoner by US forces in 1990. He was subjected to a constant stream of musical torture, including Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA and Jon Bon Jovi’s song Wanted Dead or Alive.
Where else did the Panamanian get carted off to be tried? – the United States, where the government apparently found no justification for holding its former friend to a judge for a crime they had previously condoned.
Iraq war broke out in 2003 on the heels of Bush’s son, President George W. Bush, fabricating lies. The US claimed that the nation possessed WMDs and that it was under US control. Although those were undoubtedly nowhere to be found, the US army still systematically annihilated Iraqis in numerous locations and threw up hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The interim Iraqi government led by the US arrested, tried, and immediately executed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
In every military intervention the US has made, nothing positive has generally happened. Contrary to Senator Lee’s claim that Rubio anticipates “no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody,” the most recent attack on Venezuela won’t be the end all together.
As US impunity continues, the deadly spectacle is not finished, though.
Source: Aljazeera
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