Expert: May be a violation of international law
Published 14.25
The US has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife after a dawn raid.
A sign of Trump's increasingly bold foreign policy, according to US expert Jan Hallenberg.
- In my opinion, there is a lot of evidence that this is a violation of international law, he says.
Quick version
At 01:50 local time on Saturday, explosions and attacks were heard in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
It would not be long before the US announced that it had captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Both had been taken out of the country.
Jan Hallenberg is a US expert.
- This is a military attack to get rid of a leader that the Trump administration dislikes and who is indicted in the US for drug trafficking, says Jan Hallenberg.
Similar to Panama
Hallenberg likens the events of the night to 1989 when President George HW Bush gave the order to enter Panama.
– Then Manuel Noriega was taken on similar terms. Then ground forces were also sent. It is also similar to some extent to the fight to get rid of the dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 and also to some extent the killing of Bin Laden in 2011, says Jan Hallenberg.
– So you cut off the head of the regime and then you hope that the rest of the regime collapses.
Whether that will be the result is too early to say according to Hallenberg. He also says that Trump has wanted to act against Maduro for a long time. Already during his first presidential term.
– My hope was that international law would return with force in 2026, that does not seem to be the case, rather the opposite unfortunately. Instead, there will be a further weakening. In my opinion, there is much to suggest that this is a violation of international law, says Jan Hallenberg.
May have consequences for Trump
According to Hallenberg, Trump is demonstrating a more aggressive foreign policy compared to his previous term as president.
– He is bolder now, he dares to do things that he did not dare to do then. One of his biggest attacks then was killing the Iranian general Soleimani and it was an individual. Now it is about bombings in a capital of another country that the US has not declared war on and a country that has not committed any military actions against American interests anywhere, says Jan Hallenberg.
But the actions will not be without consequences – perhaps even for Trump himself.
– What will be a big question is how this will be received domestically. This is hardly increasing the president's popularity among his core voters. They want it to be "America first" and this is hardly that when he is sitting and dribbling with world peace in Ukraine, the Middle East and now in Venezuela. This is not what his traditional voters, that is, the really loyal ones, want, says Jan Hallenberg.
He continues:
– Maduro will be prosecuted in an American court, just like Noriega was in 1989. I don't think anyone can say what will happen to Venezuela at this point. Will the regime collapse under Maduro? We don't know, says Jan Hallenberg.
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