Unveiling the New World Order with the Kidnapping of Maduro

TEHRAN (Defapress) - On Saturday, the US launched a military operation against Venezuela, kidnapping President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The Venezuelan president and his wife were then transferred to New York to face trumped-up drug trafficking charges.

The move, justified by US President Donald Trump, not only violates international law but also transgresses US domestic political boundaries. Sultan Barakat, a senior lecturer at the School of Public Policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, described the incident in an interview with Al Jazeera as part of the “new era of US imperialism” focused on oil and strategic interests.

Barakat stressed that Trump, by bypassing international law, Venezuelan law, and even the opinion of the country’s people, has taken an action that could normalize similar actions by other powers.

The operation, which included bombing Venezuela, was justified as an attempt by Trump to ostensibly take over Venezuela and exploit its rich oil wealth. Barakat believes that the drug trafficking charges are only a thin cover for the overt aims of this aggression and kidnapping.

In fact, Trump has publicly declared that the United States will take over Venezuela and tap into its oil resources. This approach, which has its roots in Trump-era policies, represents a shift in US foreign policy that has intensified nationalism and increasingly conflated Christianity with state resources. Such trends, Barakat argues, distort the existing international order and could lead to the emergence of a new, possibly bipolar and tense one.

Legal Considerations of US Aggression

From the perspective of international law, the US action is completely illegal. Barakat explains that no country can arrest or extradite the leader of a sovereign state without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council.

Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the use of military force is only permitted to prevent genocide or crimes against humanity, and even then, the goal must not be regime change. For example, the intervention in Libya in 2011, which led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, was authorized by the Security Council, but even that operation had to be limited to protecting civilians and not to regime change.

In contrast, the 2003 operation in Iraq was carried out without prior UN authorization and was justified based on false claims of weapons of mass destruction. Even then, however, the Americans did not remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq and tried him domestically.

Barakat emphasizes that it is important to note that the US cannot claim jurisdiction to kidnap a country’s leader from its own soil and try him in its own judicial system. In the post-9/11 era, international law allows cross-border operations against terrorist groups only to prevent terrorist attacks on the territory of the host country.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in their recent meeting on New Year’s Eve, tried to link Maduro to Iran, Hezbollah, and Palestinian groups to subject him to US terrorism laws, but Barakat describes these efforts as “weak” and “borrowed” from counterterrorism mechanisms.

Furthermore, international law considers any military action on a country’s soil without its consent to be a violation of sovereignty. In some conflicts, such as the operation against ISIS in Syria, countries claim the consent of the host state, but in Venezuela, the US has relied on its own 2020 domestic court indictment charging Maduro with drug trafficking. Barakat says that using such an indictment to kidnap a foreign leader lacks legal standing, as suspects are usually arrested in their own country or extradited through Interpol.

Trump, who himself flouts international law and supports Netanyahu (who has an ICC arrest warrant), is now invoking the same court’s proceedings against Maduro. The inconsistency put the legitimacy of this operation in question. 

The UN Security Council will consider the issue on Monday, but Barakat predicts that the US will be spared harsh criticism from its allies, many of whom oppose Maduro. Russia, China, and Venezuela’s allies have accused the US of violating international law, while European countries, without naming Washington, have called only for respect for international law.

Regional and global implications

This operation is of particular importance in the Middle East, as the Zionist regime has been using kidnapping operations in this region for decades. An example of such operations can be mentioned in the kidnapping of Nazi criminals from Argentina and their trial in Israel.

Barakat argues that Israel and the United States learn from each other and that the immunity of one strengthens the courage of the other to violate international law; just as Netanyahu calls the actions of the United States and the UK in Iraq and Afghanistan successful examples of the use of military force against terrorism. Subsequently, the United States also justifies its actions in Venezuela by citing the history of the Zionist regime.

By this logic, other countries could arrest the leaders of the Israeli regime for violating international law, but Barakat believes that the member states of the International Criminal Court, unfortunately, do not dare to carry out cross-border operations like the United States.

Instead, these operations could encourage Russia and China to take similar actions. For example, if Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to kidnap Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, or if China did the same with Taiwan, the history of operations against Venezuela could be a justification for them.

Barakat believes that American aggression weakens the overall structure of the prevailing international order. If China, as an emerging power, turns to military interventions instead of economic influence, or if countries move more towards nuclear weapons, a new world order will emerge, possibly bipolar and full of war and conflict.

“It seems that the only way to adopt an independent policy is to have nuclear weapons. Then everything will change dramatically,” he says. This trend could lead to increased global tensions, with major powers targeting opposition leaders without fear of possible consequences.

The US kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro is not only a clear violation of international law, but also signals the entry into a new era of imperialism in which economic interests, such as oil, take precedence over global security. Sultan Barakat’s analysis shows that this action, by bypassing legal mechanisms and ignoring the sovereignty of states, could normalize similar actions by other powers and push the global order towards instability and chaos beyond predictability.