The US Is a Rogue State That Deserves to Be Sanctioned

The United States of America is a rogue country ruled by a violent criminal operating outside the law. The bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its President Nicolas Maduro to face a show trial in New York are a flagrant violation of international law. This is compelling evidence that the United States under Trump is the biggest bad guy on the international stage and should be treated as such. This is a new low point in the era of lows we call the Trump administration. And it's a return to the imperialist posturing and interventionism that defined this country's trash-talking of Latin America for many years. two centuries.

The international community and all peoples of the earth must condemn the United States. Decent countries should impose economic sanctions on us, and our leaders should be charged as war criminals and their assets frozen. These sanctions must be directed not only at the highest levels of our government, but also against our irresponsible Congress and complicit politicians in both parties who support our illegal actions. The US should be treated as a global pariah, and that includes using all the soft power and shame the world can throw at us: our embassies should be closed and our diplomats expelled, our games and tournaments boycotted, including the upcoming World Cup and Summer Olympics. And everyone else should be making recommendations to travelers to the US in an attempt to bring down our tourism industry. Whatever the international community did to Russia after it invaded Ukraine must be done to us now that we have invaded Venezuela and are trying to install a fictitious government there.

Just like Russia, we violated the UN Charter with this unlawful use of force against a sovereign state. These rules can only be broken in cases of self-defense, but it should be abundantly clear that the United States has no legal basis for self-defense. Venezuela did not attack us or our allies. Drug trafficking, no matter how you interpret it, is not an “armed attack.” This is not a justification for the use of military force against a sovereign state. No one who takes drugs in the United States can be forced to do so at gunpoint by Venezuela. It's impossible to draw a line from a Trump supporter hitting Mar-a-Lago to a declaration of war on Caracas. The line “drug trafficking as an armed attack” is simply doesn't work— not as a justification for bombing fishing boats in the international waters of the Caribbean, or for invading a foreign country and kidnapping its president.

The argument that Maduro's kidnapping was a mere “law enforcement” action is also legally ludicrous. The United States does not have jurisdiction over Venezuela, although the Supreme Court has said it retains jurisdiction over foreign nationals accused of crimes in the United States. Vice President J.D. Vance said, “You can't escape justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas.” Vance only went to Yale Law School, so he may not have learned it, but that's pretty much how it's supposed to work: you can't kidnap people living outside your country just because you want to bring them to justice. The only legal way to bring Maduro to the United States to stand trial is through an extradition treaty between the United States and Venezuela, which we currently do not have. And even if we did have some kind of mutual assistance agreement with Venezuela, Maduro would have to enjoy criminal immunity as the leader of a sovereign state (a concept that Trump, a convicted felon, should understand well). Essentially, sending our own military to make an arrest on foreign soil without the other country's consent would still be a violation of international law and Venezuelan sovereignty.

Just to complete this ridiculous “law enforcement” argument, during his illegal indictment in New York on Monday, Maduro (and his court-appointed lawyer) disclosed that he did not know his rights until U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein informed him during the hearing. Maduro's arrest was a failure of “normal law enforcement” 101.

MAGA sycophants pointed to the arrest and trial of Panamanian General Manuel Noriega as a precedent for this illegal action. In 1989, the US invaded Panama and eventually kidnapped Noriega, then forced him to stand trial in Miami, where he was convicted of drug trafficking.

First of all, citing some ridiculously illegal crap we did 35+ years ago to justify some ridiculously illegal crap we do now is not so much a “legal argument” as it is proof that illegal activity will be repeated if it goes unpunished. We had no right to invade Panama in 1989, any more than we have the right to invade Venezuela now. We do this because we are a nuclear superpower that treats all Latin American countries as our misbehaving colonies, not because we have moral, ethical or legal grounds to stand on.

However, even the invasion of Panama had more of a semblance of legality than the Venezuelan one. First, Noriega's government formally declared a state of “war” on the United States, and the attack killed several unarmed American soldiers. That's not much of a legal justification for George H. W. Bush to kidnap a foreign ruler, but it was a lot more than what Trump has now.

Despite Under this thin veneer of legality, the United Nations condemned US actions in Panama.

Let's hope they condemn our actions again, but (information for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries) we will need more than just a strongly worded letter from the bureaucrats. Speaking of Schumer, Jeffries and a bunch of feckless Democrats, they seem very upset that Trump didn't go to Congress to ask for a declaration of war before kidnapping a foreign ruler. But let's be clear: Having Congress authorize violations of world peace will not make those violations “more legal.” As I already said: the entire international community must rise up against us.

They won't. Europe's leaders have already stuttering platitudes designed to avoid Trump's wrath. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he “believes Maduro is an illegitimate president and we shed no tears over the end of his regime.” French President Emmanuel Macron initially said Venezuelans “can only rejoice” at Maduro's resignation, apparently ignoring Venezuelans' feelings about the bombing of their capital by a foreign power. He later backtracked somewhat and said he “does not support or approve” of Maduro's kidnapping. It is good to know that the French government still condemns kidnappings. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made the best possible statement about the Weimar Republic: he said that the legality of the US operation was “complicated” and that “international law in general” should be respected. “Overall” does a great job here.

It does not surprise me that many leaders of traditional European powers are willing to allow the United States to play the role of colonial master over a Latin American country. Europe has had neither the strength nor the will to seriously oppose US policies in Latin America since 1812, and starting an economic war with us over yet another example of US imperialism is not something the European imperialists are likely to do.

I also cannot be surprised that many of the non-white and wannabe-white countries whose economic interests align with the United States have also offered support for yet another American attempt at regime change in Latin America. From Japan to India to the American puppet government in Argentina, standing up to the US is obviously costing too much.

These countries must oppose us, but the imperialists usually stick together. The world will still participate in our reindeer games, and the United States will spend the entire year congratulating itself on the 250th anniversary of our white man's Declaration of Independence, without even thinking about the irony that independence for white men here means two and a half centuries of enslavement for everyone else we live with in this hemisphere.

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I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this is why no leader in the Global South should respect the United States or the white international community at any level. US leaders have proven time and time again that they are racist hypocrites who do not stand for liberty or freedom, only for rape and plunder of the resources their countries lack. It doesn't matter if those resources are oil, wealth, or even people: the white world sticks together when it comes to stealing things from countries of color.

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The US is a rogue state, but it is a white rogue state threatening its non-white neighbors, and that is always okay. Even non-white countries understand this. Everyone on the world stage knows that the rules are different when white countries take what they want, especially when they take it from non-white countries. They've been doing this for literally centuries.

Thus, Trump's actions against Venezuela are far from unprecedented. This country's violent, illegal actions against the sovereign states of Latin America are norm. Trump, as is his wont, is just doing the usual things, without the usual white niceties that come with imperialist machinations.

By removing the US mask, Trump simply revealed what non-whites have always believed to be true: US foreign policy is as colonialist, imperialist and racist as anything Europe has ever pursued, and much of Europe will continue to support it.