“I don’t give a shit what you call it,” US Vice President JD Vance replied last year to suggestions that killing Venezuelan civilians without any due process would be described a war crime. That comment was in relation to the US bombing boats suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Pacific in over 30 strikes, killing more than 115 people: now, it assumes an even stronger tone. The Trump administration recently carried out a large-scale military operation in Venezuela resulting in the capture and removal of President Nicolás Maduro.
This raises important legal concerns over the adherence of these actions to established principles of international law, particularly sovereignty, conditions for extradition, self-defence, immunity of heads of state, and provisions against the use of force. This article will argue that none of these have been respected, and that US attempts to characterise narco-terrorism as an attack which it could legally respond to as self-defence, are implausible.
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Note: This analysis concerns the legality of the US’s actions, not the legitimacy of the Maduro government. One may simultaneously hold that Maduro’s regime is repressive and that the means used to remove him violated international law.
What Happened in Caracas?
US forces carried out large-scale military strikes in the Venezuelan capital in an operation to remove both Maduro and his wife. The operation was the culmination of prior escalations from the Trump administration, including the aforementioned strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels and numerous sanctions put on Venezuela. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in a New York Federal Court in 2020, for their role in what the Trump administration claims is a narco-terrorist conspiracy, and which has been stated as the motivation for their removal, claims to which they have pleaded not guilty.
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Other reasons given for their removal include the desire for regime change, an effect of the recent US National Security Strategy designating the ‘Trump corollary’ to the Monroe doctrine, as well as of Trump’s expressions of his desire to control Venezuela’s oil industry and allegations that it had stolen the oil from the US. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s Vice President, has now been sworn in as interim President, receiving the public backing of the Trump administration, which has expressed that the US will “run the country” until there can be a safe transition.
The Central Question: Was This Lawful Force?
