The United States' military incursion into Venezuela, culminating in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, constitutes a blatant and grave violation of international law that harkens back to an era of pure imperialist might. The attack, carried out without a UN Security Council mandate and without authorization from the US Congress, represents a crime of aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The night-time raid, which according to local sources also hit civilian infrastructure like power grids, resulted in innocent casualties among the population, transforming an illegitimate operation into a potential war crime due to the failure to distinguish between military and civilian targets.

The legal pretext of narcotrafficking charges, brought by a New York prosecutor, cannot in any way justify an armed invasion and the abduction of a sovereign head of state on his own soil. This cornerstone principle of the post-1945 international order has been trampled. The so-called "justice" Maduro will face is not that of an impartial international tribunal, but that of a US federal court, in a clear application of extraterritorial and "predatory" jurisdiction that turns the judicial system into a tool of foreign policy. The procedure violates the fundamental prohibition against exercising judicial authority on the territory of another state without its consent.

President Trump's press conference then unmasked the true economic and geopolitical motivations, overshadowing the rhetoric on drugs. The announcement of an interim government led by Washington, with the explicit goal of "updating oil infrastructure" and protecting the investments of American multinationals, constitutes a military occupation and the plundering of the national resources of a sovereign country. The explicit reference to the Monroe Doctrine reveals a neocolonial vision that relegates American states to a backyard to be controlled by force.

The civilian victims of this act of aggression are doubly forgotten: first by the bombs that hit residential areas, then by the official narrative celebrating a "brilliant operation." The international community, through reactions from countries like Russia, Chile, and Colombia, has recognized the action's illegality, denouncing the violation of sovereignty and the UN Charter. However, the European response, although tepid, has not matched the gravity of the act, limiting itself to generic appeals to international law without explicitly condemning the aggression.

In conclusion, this operation marks a dangerous return to the law of the strongest. It sets the precedent that a power, based on unilateral accusations and economic interests, can invade a country, kill its civilians, depose its government, and seize its resources, all outside any international legal framework. It is a fatal blow to multilateralism and an act of war that, under the mask of fighting drug trafficking, has revealed the face of an imperialism that never truly faded.