Venezuela's allies condemned an 'illegal act of aggression' while countries aligned with the US urged restraint but sought to avoid directly criticizing Donald Trump.
The shockwave matched the scale of the American coup de force in Venezuela early on the morning of Saturday, January 3. The American military intervention and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have threatened to further fracture an already crumbling international order.
The United States flouted international norms and disregarded the sovereignty of a nation-state to forcibly topple a regime it considers an enemy. The operation launched by Donald Trump against Maduro – wanted by US authorities on "narcoterrorism" charges – risks deepening the divide between the Global North and South, a split already widened by the war in Ukraine, nearly four years after Russia's full-scale invasion, and the conflict in Gaza, launched by Israel after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Reactions poured in throughout Saturday. Brazilian President Lula condemned "a serious attack on Venezuela's sovereignty." "The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president go beyond the bounds of what is acceptable," he said, urging the United Nations "to respond vigorously" to the interference. Mexico also condemned the US-led operation reminiscent of the heyday of US interventionism in Latin America under the Monroe Doctrine. Devised in 1823 by President James Monroe to end European colonialism in the Americas in exchange for American non-interference in Europe, the policy later evolved into a justification for US military interventions throughout Latin America.
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