Trump administration justifies Maduro's capture by 1989 Panama invasion precedent

The administration of US President Donald Trump justified the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores by citing the 1989 invasion of Panama and the capture of the country's then-leader Manuel Noriega. This was reported by UNN with reference to CNN.

Details

The White House refers to an internal legal opinion from 1989, and views the subsequent US invasion of Panama as a precedent to justify the operation to capture Maduro. This opinion states that the US President has constitutional authority to involve the FBI in investigating and arresting individuals for violating US law, "even if these actions contradict international law."

Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser to the State Department who now works as a senior adviser at Crisis Group, stated that the use of the legal opinion to justify the operation in Venezuela "is not convincing from the perspective of international law" and called Trump's actions "a gross violation of the UN Charter."

However, according to him, "from the perspective of domestic law, it may meet all requirements." At the same time, the difference between the operations in Panama and Venezuela is that in the late 1980s, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega declared war on the US, and only then did the American invasion occur.

In early 1990, Noriega was transferred to the US, and in 1992 he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug trafficking and extortion. He died in 2017.

Recall

US President Donald Trump published a photo of Nicolas Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima after his detention by American special forces.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Machado addressed her compatriots. She added that "Venezuela will be free."