To Hell with International Legitimacy!!

Mahjoub Fadle Badri

International law did not pass the lips of the American President, Trump, even once. Yet, with evident swagger, Trump announced that he had ordered the seizure of the president of a sovereign state and his forcible transfer—together with his wife—from his palace in his country’s capital to New York to be tried under American law. Trump boasted, with a show of arrogance, about what the US military had done—describing it as “excellent”—in carrying out his instructions, without the slightest regard for what international law says in governing relations between states. In a thinly veiled warning, he said: “We must have forgotten for too long the Monroe Doctrine,” reminding people of what the Monroe Doctrine entails—

attributed to US President James Monroe in 1823, which treats any European attempt to interfere in the affairs of the countries of the Americas, or in the Western Hemisphere, as a hostile act against the United States of America.

This plainly means that all the countries of Latin America, after the end of Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule, have effectively become the United States’ backyard.

What the United States has done against Venezuela is a barbaric act—rejected, reprehensible, and unlawful—whether we agree or disagree with the abducted president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, or with his late predecessor, Hugo Chávez, America’s bitter foe.

I will never forget the full military salute Chávez rendered to Field Marshal Al-Bashir before shaking the president’s hand, expressing admiration for Sudan’s and President Al-Bashir’s firmness in confronting American arrogance, bullying, and the double standards with which it deals with Third World countries. Chávez died of cancer before he could quench his anger against the enemies of his country—settlers thirsty for the blood of indigenous peoples, plundering their wealth for no reason other than to build their own prosperity at the expense of the people who own the land and its civilisation, rooted deep in antiquity.

America, which invaded Panama in 1989 and brought its president, Noriega, to the United States to be tried and imprisoned on its soil, watched the world’s reactions at the time and found they did not go beyond condemnation and denunciation—even as it saw international law being trampled under the heavy boots of the Yankees. Noriega remained in an American prison for years before meeting his end.

And now, under the banner of enforcing American law, Venezuela’s president Maduro faces a fate similar to that of Panama’s president Noriega—despite international law, and despite the existence of UN institutions whose leaders will feel nothing beyond “concern”!!

Trump felt no embarrassment whatsoever as he spoke of Venezuela’s oil, calling it “our oil”—the very phrase we have heard from many American officials when speaking of Sudan’s oil. Trump went further, urging American companies to invest in Venezuela’s oil (stolen from us), calling on them to recoup their losses. He sent a reassuring message to the countries that rely on Venezuelan oil, saying: we will sell it to them!!

Trump dropped the mask, revealing that the reason for the invasion was to seize Venezuela’s oil, rather than the claim of “combating drugs”—the charge the US administration used as a pretext for its assault on an independent, sovereign state. He even added that what happened to Maduro was a message to all presidents who follow Maduro’s path. He said: “We will run Venezuela in the coming period!!” Nor did his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio (of Cuban origin), forget to threaten his own motherland, saying: Cuba is a catastrophe in itself!!

If an emergency session of the Security Council is convened, the international community’s response will not go beyond “concern”, as expected; the American veto is ready. To hell with international law—and no consolation for those who still dream of UN justice.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=10185