Trump has ushered in a new era of chaos and mindless militarism

Trump’s assault on Venezuela exposes a new world order where international law is discarded, democracy a fig leaf, and naked resource seizure, especially oil, is proclaimed, writes Eric Lewis

The attack on Venezuela was in gross violation of international law, but as Donald Trump demonstrated last weekend, in the new world order, international law is for chumps. He and his team have strained mightily and repeatedly to come up with the fig leaf of a legal or even a moral justification. Although Trump lies all the time, he often spills his innermost thoughts in the course of his interminable monologues. He has done so here. What he has already made clear is that he cares not at all about legality or morality. He has no plan to run a country of 30 million people; he wants the oil.

Let’s review the multiple attempted justifications that were floated in just the first 48 hours.

First, this was not a military invasion, just support for law enforcement personnel trying to make an arrest under a valid indictment. Second, this was national self-defence, because Nicolas Maduro’s presiding over narco-terrorism was killing thousands of Americans. Third, we needed to restore democracy, and Maduro was a nasty piece of work who, you guessed it, stole an election. Fourth, Venezuela stole “our oil” and this was a legitimate move to get it back. And fifth, this was a valid invocation of the Monroe Doctrine or its newly minted corollary, the “Donroe” doctrine.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship @realDonaldTrump/Handout via Reuters (@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)

None of these ever-shifting rationales withstands the slightest scrutiny. Law enforcement can only be carried out by police within the territorial United States (or in limited cases, aboard a flagged vessel, not by a massive barrage and Special Forces operations where 80 people are killed (although no Americans, so nothing to worry about). Law enforcement by a foreign state on the territory of another state is only permitted with the consent of the home government, which did not happen here.

When Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped in Argentina by Israel in 1960, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution, supported by the United States, stating it was a “breach of principles upon which the international order is founded, creating an atmosphere of insecurity and distrust incompatible with the preservation of peace”. According to Ronald Reagan’s legal adviser to the State Department, attempts to arrest in foreign countries “have no legal justification under international law aside from self-defence”.

A Venezuela-linked oil tanker that was travelling off British waters. US forces attempted to seize the Marinera, a Russian-flagged vessel previously known as Bella-1, which escaped Donald Trump’s ‘total naval blockade’ of Venezuela. PA Photo. Photo credit: @US_EUCOM/X/PA Wire (X/@US_EUCOM)

That brings us to justification number two. Trump claims he was defending the US from narco-terrorists killing Americans with fentanyl. Let’s put aside that fentanyl is made mainly in Mexico with Chinese ingredients, or that Venezuela’s trans-shipment of drugs, mainly cocaine, goes mainly to Europe or that Trump just pardoned the president of Honduras convicted by a US jury for shipping 400 tonnes of cocaine, far more than Maduro is charged with. Narcotics trafficking is a serious crime, but not an act of war that could support a remotely plausible claim of self-defence. Self-defence is not some subjective notion that applies if the president feels like invoking it. It only applies if another country or non-state actor has launched a kinetic armed attack on your sovereign territory. Venezuela has not attacked the United States.

So let’s move on to striking a blow for democracy. Maduro was no democrat, and he stole the 2024 election, along with his inner circle. And the United Nations Charter calls for all peoples to have a right to freely determine their political status. So perhaps Trump was just helping the Venezuelans along that path by deposing Maduro. Let’s put aside that he seems to be pursuing one-stop shopping with Maduro’s authoritarian inner circle and not the Nobel Prize-winning Maria Machado, who has overwhelming public support, or Eduardo Gonzalez who is widely viewed as the runaway winner of the disputed 2024 election. Even if Trump’s goal had been creating perfect Athenian democracy in Venezuela, self-determination is a right that belongs to the citizens of a country, not imposed through military force by a foreign power.

The Trump administration has rechristened the Monroe Doctrine the Donroe doctrine and claims a right to act as it pleases in the Western hemisphere (Getty)

Trump’s outrage about the theft of “our oil” comes closer to what the invasion was all about (as well as, it is reported, Maduro’s impertinent dancing). But there are two problems here. Maduro didn’t steal any of “our oil”. The oil is under the ground in Venezuela. In 1976, Venezuela followed dozens of other countries in nationalising the oil industry, effectively revoking valuable concessions that had been granted to private companies a half century before. These concessions gave oil companies the right to pump and sell it for a period of time, not ownership. Numerous oil companies agreed to around $1bn in compensation. In 2007, president Chavez exerted further state control and Venezuela was sued and multiple judgments and arbitration awards have been issued in favour of oil companies. They have the right of any civil litigant to enforce their rights and seek to collect on their judgments. But civil creditors cannot bring in the Marines.

Finally, the Trump administration has rechristened the Monroe Doctrine the Donroe doctrine and claims a right to act as it pleases in the Western hemisphere. This is Trump’s take on the Monroe Doctrine from the early 19th century, when president Monroe sought to limit interference and colonisation in the Western hemisphere by European powers. This was just a few years after the British had burnt down the White House in 1812. Neither the Monroe Doctrine nor the Donroe doctrine are principles of law or morality. They are claims to power and spheres of influence.

The Donroe doctrine gives up the game about the invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Maduro and his wife. Monroe was trying to keep the dominant powers of his day out of the backyard of a new and fragile republic. Donroe seeks to establish a new colonialism on the part of the imperial power of today and over the core strategic resources of our era. Trump says he will “run the country” and “take control” of Venezuela’s oil reserves. On Thursday, Trump announced the US presence would be “indefinite”, “much longer than a year” and ”only time will tell”. First order of business: using what secretary of state Marco Rubio calls the United States’ “tremendous leverage” to take 30 to 50 million barrels of oil and bring it to the United States to refine and sell; no clue about where those revenues will go.

Trump says he will ‘run the country’ and ‘take control’ of Venezuela’s oil reserves (Getty)

Claims have been made that various US operations, including the Gulf Wars, were all about oil. These charges were denied as paranoid suspicion of the motives of the US government; the real objectives were fighting for freedom or against terrorism. Under this president, there is no need for higher purposes, and the naked seizure of resources is defiantly declared.

In 1954, the CIA overthrew the government of Guatemala because it tried to reform the brutal labour practices of the United Fruit Company, which lobbied heavily for a coup. This time, it is not about bananas. It is about the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. After the immediate shock and awe, Trump appears to have no plan how to run a deeply divided country of 30 million people, but he sure has a target, and he has told us what it is.

Trump’s administration, including JD Vance, want control of Greenland (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

And nothing whets the appetite for conquest like short-term success. The Donroe doctrine now appears to extend to Greenland, which has been a territory of Denmark, our Nato ally, for more than two centuries. Ironically, after Nazi Germany occupied Denmark during the Second World War, the United States extended the Monroe Doctrine and signed defence pact to prevent German takeover during Second World War.

After Denmark was liberated, it resumed control of Greenland, which was incorporated as an autonomous territory, with the US retaining a security presence throughout the Cold War. The Western Alliance always recognised Greenland’s strategic importance and has always welcomed the US security umbrella. But Trump, as always, wants real estate, including control of minerals beneath the ground in Greenland, and he seems relatively unconcerned with threatening a Nato ally with territorial invasion. Ironically, under Article 5, the United States would need to militarily support Denmark against any US incursion. Such is the chaotic strategy and mindless militarism of the way we live now.