Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders must defend the rule of international law, as a dangerous new world order emerges
T
he initial reaction of European leaders to Donald Trump’s illegal military intervention in Venezuela was not only weak, it also had the briefest of shelf lives. Refusing on Sunday to condemn the attack as a breach of international law, European Union member states called hopefully for “a negotiated, democratic, inclusive and peaceful solution to the crisis, led by Venezuelans”. The delusional nature of that response was laid bare as Mr Trump told reporters the same day: “We’re in charge.”
So much for the restoration of democracy. The US president also repeated threats of further military action, should the repressive regime left behind when Nicolás Maduro was seized fail to do Washington’s bidding. As Mr Trump’s marginalising of the Nobel prize-winning opposition figurehead María Corina Machado illustrated early on, the will of Venezuelans is not on his list of priorities. Operation Absolute Resolve was about exercising raw power to dominate a sovereign nation, and controlling Venezuela’s future oil production.
Faced with such nakedly imperialist ambitions, and a brazen contempt for rules-based multilateralism, Sir Keir Starmer and his European allies need to do much better than cover their eyes and disingenuously shift the focus of discussion. Having initially emphasised the need for a democratic transition in Venezuela, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday that he “neither supported nor approved” the manner of Mr Maduro’s removal. Sir Keir, whose evasions and obfuscations on the matter up to now have been painful to witness, should do the same. When Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, warns that US actions in Venezuela will only embolden other global bullies to trash international norms, he must know that she is right.
