First they came...

 





Amidst some murmurings among some circles in the Sri Lankan capital about how Venezuelans are pleased at what happened, we have the above very disturbing news post in a premier Sri Lankan English Language newspaper that describes Trump's aggression in Venezuela and the involuntary extradiction of its President and his wife as "daring".  

The JVP, the main party in the NPP coalition, condemned the action in a statement (translated into English by Ada Derana).  They had  condemned similar aggression in 2019  with a protest outside the US Embassy. 

Our Sri Lankan government seems to be playing safe.  The Foreign Minister has suggested that the government's position is that necessary action should be taken at the UN General Assembly against violations of the UN Charter and its fundamental principles.  The South African government has called on the UN Security Council to act.

 But several governments have condemned the aggression outright. 

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, while accepting that Spain did not recognise the Maduro regime, was firm that it wouldn't "recognise an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region toward a horizon of uncertainty and belligerence "

The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed deep shock and "strongly condemned the use of force by the US against a sovereign country and the use of force against the president of a country"

Russia (rather hypocritically some may say) made a statement that the United States' act of armed aggression against Venezuela is deeply concerning and condemnable and goes on to say that the "pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded".

Latin America's leaders, from Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Colombia have unequivocally condemned the actions as a "grave affront to Venezuela's sovereignty", a threat to the region, a dangerous precedent, and a clear violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter 

Sir Keir Starmer, the UK's Prime Minister has refused to condemn the strike.  

We are reminded that this is not the first time the US has violated the sovereignty of nations whose governments the US administration does not like.  Think Guatemala in the 1950s, the overthrow of Allende in Chile in the 1970s, think Nicaragua, think Vietnam.

There maybe geopolitical and diplomatic reasons for not calling out the US, and letting them get away with it yet again. But we know that this is not about Venezuela or Maduro's unpopularity or as Trump has told Fox News  about  "[doing] liberty for the people".  It's about access to natural resources.  So to paraphrase a well known poem "first they came for the oil and we didn't speak out because we had no oil....... and then they came for us and ...."


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