IS THERE A PRECEDENT?
The US has captured criminal suspects in foreign countries, including Libya, but it has sought consent of local authorities. While the administration describes Maduro as an illegitimate leader, Washington has not recognised another Venezuelan leader who could have authorised the capture of Maduro.
In 1989, the US arrested General Manuel Noriega, then the leader of Panama, in similar circumstances. Noriega had been indicted on drug-related charges and Washington said it was acting to protect US citizens after Panamanian forces had killed a US soldier.4
The United States had also alleged Noriega was an illegitimate leader and had recognised as the country’s leader the candidate whom Noriega had claimed to have defeated in a recent election.
The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, was extradited to the United States in 2022 and later convicted on drug-related charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Trump pardoned Hernandez in December.
Legal experts were sceptical that the United States would face any meaningful accountability for its actions in Venezuela, even if they were unlawful, given the lack of enforcement mechanisms in international law.
“It’s hard to see how any legal body could impose practical consequences on the administration,” said Paul of Northeastern.
