‘We cannot have breaches of international law like this. We cannot have the law of the jungle.’
Dame Emily Thornberry has become the most senior Labour MP thus far to criticise Donald Trump’s strikes on Venezuela over the weekend, which saw President Nicolas Maduro and his wife captured.
The Trump administration attacked Venezuela on Saturday, saying that the US will now “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” can be ensured. The US president has also said US oil companies would also fix Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”.
Senior Democrats have criticised Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela, slamming it as an illegal act carried out in the absence of required congressional approval that would lead to disaster for the American people.
The Trump administration has justified the capture of Maduro, who is now awaiting trial in the US, saying that the Venezuelan has engaged in state-sponsored drug trafficking with its support of notorious gangs, including the Cartel of the Suns, which the US declared a terrorist organisation late last year.
Prosecutors say Maduro has conspired for decades with drug trafficking groups and U.S.-designated terrorist organizations to flood the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine.
Maduro was first indicted in 2020 as part of a long-running narcotics trafficking case against current and former Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrillas.
Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
However, the Trump administration’s justifications have been met with criticism in some quarters, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying he was “deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected”, his spokesperson said. He also said he was “deeply alarmed” by the strikes, which set a “dangerous precedent.”
Emily Thornberry is among other Labour MPs who have also criticised the actions, with the chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee saying that US military action in Venezuela breaches international law and the UK should make clear it is “unacceptable”.
Dame Emily told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour the strikes were “not a legal action” and she “cannot think of anything that could be a proper justification”.
She said the UK and its allies should collectively say “we cannot have breaches of international law like this. We cannot have the law of the jungle.”
She went on to add: “We condemn Putin for doing it. We need to make clear that Donald Trump shouldn’t be doing it either.
“People just can’t do whatever they want. I mean, we really can’t have a kind of international anarchy.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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