By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
The United States President Donald Trump and his administration has shocked the sovereignty of Venezuela by launching a full on attack on the country as well as capturing the Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro along with his wife, Celia Adela Flores de Maduro, on Saturday. Trump describes the attack as a law enforcement operation which is aimed at infiltrating drug trafficking in Venezuela.
At a press conference in New York after Maduro was captured, Donald Trump said; “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again”. In recent years lines have been blurred in regards to whether global leaders are taking violent measures in the name of international law, however a President being seized from his own nation by foreign powers has ignited fears that the idea of sovereignty is actively being erased.
This has also exposed that there is no true equality when it comes to upholding International Relations. Various political analysts have suggested that international law is only upheld selectively and only really applies to Western powers and countries that are under the protection of these Western powers.
Trump also held a press conference in Florida to justify the US capture of President Maduro; “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition to new leadership” he said. “We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” Trump added.
The government of Venezuela had struck three other areas such as Miranda, Aragua and La Guaria apart from the capital, Caracas. The capturing of Maduro is not the first time this has happened in a history of tensions between the US and foreign leaders, as the United States have once captured the likes of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
America’s attack on Venezuela comes after months of grueling tensions between the two nations as Trump has continuously claimed that Maduro is facilitating the Tren de Aragua gang which Washington has often described as a terrorist organisation. However despite these claims, American intelligence agencies have expressed that there is no evidence that the Venezuelan President is linked to the organisation.
More than 100 Venezuelan citizens have been killed in 30 boat bombings that have been launched by America since September 2025, as the US Military have expressed that these vessels were carrying narcotics along the Caribbean Sea. In December, the United States seized two ships that were carrying oil owned by Venezuela. “We’re going to have our very large American oil companies go in and spend billions of dollars, and fix the badly broken oil infrastructure,” he said at a press conference held at his Mar-a-lago residence in Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government that the attacks threaten the stability of Latin America as well as the Caribbean, putting millions of civilian lives at risk. The Department of International Relation and Cooperation (DIRCO) has called for the intervention of the United Nations Security Council regarding the military attacks on Venezuela.
“South Africa views these actions as a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which mandates that all member states refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Furthermore, the charter does not authorise external military intervention in matters that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign nation.” said DIRCO in a released statement.