The best option for all is for the US to return Maduro and his wife with apologies and pay compensation for the lives taken and damages caused. But peace is not in the DNA of an unrepentant bandit. As they say in Ibadan, Nigeria, it is insanity you use to cure insanity. Unless people like Trump are brought to justice, we would always have an international relations culture of everyone to himself, God for us all.
Amidst fires, wide scale destruction and bloodbath, the predatory United States, US hawk, swooped on President Nicolas Maduro. It then flew out, holding in the grip of its talons the Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores. The hostages were deposited in a New York detention facility.
Some appeared shocked that a country would attack another and pluck its First Family. But I am not surprised. The US establishment was born and grew with a predatory instinct, hence its ‘Wild, Wild West’ culture of banditry, brigandage and chaos. As a matter of fact, Venezuela is the ninety-sixth country the US has invaded or interfered in since the Second World War ended in 1945.
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In history, it has invaded Nicaragua over forty times and Honduras, eleven times. The US has also invaded countries like Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala and Grenada. It invaded Puerto Rico in July 1898, and today, 127 years later, maintains its stranglehold on it as a colony. When US invaded Mexico, it forced it to cede huge swaths of land that today are known as Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada.
In celebrating the Saturday, 3 January invasion of Venezuela, President Donald Trump, in a child-like manner, described the brigandage as, “one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”
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As if he had achieved a childhood fantasy, Trump said of the invasion that, “Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault – and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II…”
While Trump had invaded Venezuela under the excuse that President Maduro is involved in the drug trade, he had no excuse for mentioning Cuba as the next possible target. He said: “The people there have suffered for many years. I think Cuba is something that we’ll end up talking about, because they’re a badly failing nation.”
Although Trump mentioned drugs and corruption for abducting the Maduros, the eyes of the US are on the huge Venezuelan oil reserves. He said the US may deploy boots on the ground, establish a new government that would include high US officials and share the oil and gas fields to US companies. So, Trump eyes Venezuela’s natural resources as war booty. As for the Maduros, they are already guilty of charges that the US may bring against them because chicks cannot plead innocent in a cast of hawks.
Maduro, known for being conscious of his poor background and vowing to elevate all Venezuelans from poverty, was for many years a bus driver of the Caracas Metro company. There, he followed the footsteps of his father, Nicolas Maduro Garcia, by joining the trade unions. His grandparents were of Moorish origins. He established an unofficial trade union, as the company had banned unionisation.
This is the second time Maduro will be detained in New York. In July, 2006, when he was Venezuelan foreign minister, he was detained in the JFK International Airport for allegedly buying three flight tickets with cash. He and other Venezuelans with him refused to be frisked, insisting that they had diplomatic immunity. His detention then lasted ninety minutes. Nobody knows how long this new detention will last, as this is an hostage crises.
Also, this will be the second time in five years that a highly placed Venezuelan official will be detained by the US. On 12 June, 2020, diplomat, Alex Saab, was detained in Cape Verde, abducted and transported to the US, where he was only released in December 2023 in a prisoner exchange deal. Equally, it will be the second time in five years when Americans will invade Venezuela in an attempt to oust Maduro. On that occasion, from 3-4 May, 2020, American mercenaries, coupled together by Silvercorp USA, invaded from Colombia but were beaten back.
Maduro, known for being conscious of his poor background and vowing to elevate all Venezuelans from poverty, was for many years a bus driver of the Caracas Metro company. There, he followed the footsteps of his father, Nicolas Maduro Garcia, by joining the trade unions. His grandparents were of Moorish origins. He established an unofficial trade union, as the company had banned unionisation.
In 1998, he was elected into the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies, the National Constituent Assembly the following year, and the National Assembly in 2000. Maduro was elected president of the National Assembly in 2005, and became foreign minister for six years from 2006, vice president from 2012-2013, and president in 2013 after the death of President Hugo Chavez.
Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, whom the US abducted along with her husband, was a lawyer with speciality in criminal and labour law, when the couple met in the early 1990s. She later moved into politics and was elected into the National Assembly. When Maduro was appointed foreign minister in 2006, she succeeded him as president of the Assembly. They got married in 2013 when Maduro became president.
The US invasion is a direct violation of the United Nations Charter, which in Article 1 states that its primary goals include the “settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.”
In the face of US brigandage and gross violation of its Charter, the UN’s tepid reaction is that it is “deeply alarmed” by the invasion. But this bland UN statement is better than that of the European Union, whose High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas said, “The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy…”
It also violates the Second Article, which states that Member Countries are to develop friendly relations based on “respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace.”
In the face of US brigandage and gross violation of its Charter, the UN’s tepid reaction is that it is “deeply alarmed” by the invasion. But this bland UN statement is better than that of the European Union, whose High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas said, “The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy…”
Yet, this arrogant statement is better than that of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who in typical British dubious and duplicitous diplomacy, had no position on the infamous invasion because he was yet to “establish (the) facts.”
What the world has had is a mass outpour of condemnation for the abductions, especially by Caribbean and Latin American countries.
The US message to all countries, big and small, is that in a world of international banditry, all countries should acquire nuclear capability as a deterrent and, in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter which reinforces: “the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations…”
The US has not pressed on with a full-scale invasion, as it may be weighing the consequences. So, the state structures in Venezuela, including the arms of government, remain intact. The best option for all is for the US to return Maduro and his wife with apologies and pay compensation for the lives taken and damages caused. But peace is not in the DNA of an unrepentant bandit. As they say in Ibadan, Nigeria, it is insanity you use to cure insanity. Unless people like Trump are brought to justice, we would always have an international relations culture of everyone to himself, God for us all.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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