BENGALURU: In a blatant expression of unbridled power, US President Donald Trump struck Venezuela and abducted sitting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their heavily guarded location in Caracas.
Calling the US action extraordinary and setting a “dangerous precedent,” Chairperson, Indo-Pacific Studies Programme, Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru, Manoj Kewalramani said that “legally speaking, this operation stands on a weak footing. Clearly, there was no immediate threat or basis in international law that permitted the attack and rendition of a sitting president. And evidently, there was no Congressional authorisation that the Trump administration sought,” said Kewalramani. There are several questions that remain unanswered, he told this newspaper.
“First, what will be the fate of Maduro? Will he be tried in the US or will he be exiled to another country? Second, what’s the future of Venezuela? There will be a power transition. Any new leader will require the establishment’s backing. "
"Essentially, the system sustains despite the president falling. This leads to the third set of questions: does this operation address any of the structural challenges that the Trump administration had been highlighting, that is, the flow of migrants and drugs, the presence of criminal gangs and cartels, and of course Venezuela’s ties with non-hemispheric competitors like China, Russia and Iran,” added Kewalramani.
He further said that, finally within the United States, the Trump administration will surely project the operation as a “political success.”