Even by the standards set by the United States of America when it comes to imposing its imperial writ on other nations through war, its attack on Venezuela and the dramatic abduction of President Nicolás Maduro early on Saturday morning mark a particularly dangerous turning point for the world. The US has long had Mr Maduro in its crosshairs. But none of the Donald Trump administration's official arguments to justify its pressure campaign on Venezuela hold in the face of cold scrutiny of facts. If the problem was Mr Maduro sending drugs into the US, how does that square with Mr Trump's pardon of the convicted drug trafficker and former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernnández? If Mr Maduro is the mastermind behind the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, a transnational crime cartel based in Venezuela, why does Mr Trump's own intelligence apparatus disagree with this assessment? On Saturday, what many analysts had long suspected became evident when Mr Maduro was picked up from his home after an armed attack on Venezuela, put onto a US ship handcuffed and blindfolded, taken to New York, and humiliatingly paraded in a perp walk. Regime change was certainly one of the goals of Mr Trump’s military intervention. Significantly, Mr Trump and his advisers have also been increasingly claiming publicly that Venezuela's unmatched reserves of oil belong to the US. Mr Trump has said that the US will run Venezuela for the foreseeable future until it can install a government it likes. Would Venezuela now be led on to the path of destabilisation, a fate that has befallen other nations at the receiving end of the US’s regime-change rhetoric? Admittedly, Mr Maduro’s reign was far from perfect, given his excesses. But Mr Trump’s action in Venezuela sends an ominous message to the world and to America’s neighbourhood: sovereignty may well be conditional on US approval.
America has long waged or financed wars in other countries. But in the past, even in the case of Iraq, the US was more cautious about declaring its intent, be it taking over another country's oil and other resources or something else. While the US has previously taken custody of foreign leaders, such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Panama's Manuel Noriega, those acts took place after declared wars and ground invasions. And while the US has long fomented coups in South America, this is its first direct military attack on the continent. The question that is likely to echo in capitals around the world is this: who and what is next? The Ayatollah of Iran? The leaders of Mexico or Colombia, countries Mr Trump has also accused of sending drugs to the US? Cuba, whose communist government has been a thorn in America's side for decades? A takeover of Greenland, which Mr Trump has been eyeing?
India is right to have expressed deep concern over the events in Venezuela. But the global community needs to do more. Bullies only understand a collective pushback. Unfortunately, Mr Trump is acting like one.