U.S. Has Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (Updated)
www.twz.com
A major U.S. military operation, which included airstrikes and the use of special operations forces, resulted in the capture of Maduro.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    5·
    10 days ago

    Updated headline:

    U.S. Has Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

    I guess Venezuela is in for a new government.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
      6·
      10 days ago

      Surely Vice President Rodriguez just takes over? That’s exactly what a VP is for

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      91·
      10 days ago

      Maduro lost the last elections and decided that he wanted to stay in power anyway. That doesn’t provide legal justification under international law for the US to unilaterally go remove him — that’d require a UNSC mandate, which I’m sure Russia or China would veto — but I’m not sure that there will be a whole lot of tears shed in Venezuela over him being gone, as long as whoever winds up running things is considered to have political legitimacy in Venezuela.

      I think that the larger issue is likely going to be in terms of indirect international relations. Like, countries recognize the UNSC because they expect the major powers that occupy UNSC seats to more-or-less restrain themselves. If that system starts to break down — and if you figure that two UNSC permanent seat holders, Russia and the US, decided to go decapitate (well, in Russia’s case, try) two governments in the past four years without really bothering to make any real argument for UNSC sanction, I’d think that there are some real questions as to whether the UN system will weaken and start to break down. That’s not necessarily a great idea from the US’s standpoint.

      And even aside from that…like, the US has a very powerful military. Shifting things to decapitation actions may be a really bad idea. Say Random Leader X feels like he’s liable to be captured or killed, maybe he decides to try to assassinate the US President, if that’s his only chance at a way out. Iran already did try to assassinate Trump. Given that Trump just nabbed Maduro, what might Iran’s leadership think? It’s not all that hard to assassinate leaders, not compared to winning a war. There’s risk there, sure, but maybe it suddenly looks like a much more appealing idea.

      Trump hit Soleimani during his first term, too.

      Like, the US is probably a lot better off in a world where interstate conflict is not, by convention, handled via direct actions against national leaders. Doesn’t play to US strengths. The Secret Service might be more-capable than most state protective forces at preventing assassination or capture, but not many times more so. The US probably benefits by having conflict handled between militaries, where its advantages are greatest.