US President Donald Trump’s decision to order a late-night military operation inside Venezuela and arrest sitting President Nicolás Maduro marks a decisive moment in the collapse of the international order.

This was not a covert raid against a non-state militant leader hiding in ungoverned territory. It was the armed seizure of a head of state from his own capital, carried out without Congressional authorisation and in open defiance of the most basic principles of international law.

What makes this moment truly dangerous is not only the action itself, but the reaction that followed. Europe’s muted response, carefully worded statements, and evident desire to look away reveal how the erosion of the rules-based order is now being actively accelerated by silence and selective outrage.

The Trump administration has tried to frame the operation as a law-enforcement action, justified by indictments against Maduro for narcoterrorism. That argument collapses under even minimal scrutiny. States do not send special forces across borders, strike targets in foreign capitals, and remove presidents under the guise of serving arrest warrants. If that principle were accepted, any powerful country could claim the right to abduct foreign leaders it deems criminal.

International law is explicit on this point. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. There is no recognised legal doctrine that allows regime change by abduction, nor one that permits a country to “run” another state because its leader is disliked or indicted abroad.

The administration’s own internal contradictions make the legal breach even starker. Only weeks earlier, senior officials had told Congress that land strikes in Venezuela would require Congressional approval. That position was abruptly abandoned. No new authorisation was sought. No clear legal framework was presented.

Instead, the justification shifted from drug trafficking, to migration, to oil, often within the same news cycle.........

© National Herald