The rebirth of impunity

By *Jomo Sanga Thomas

(“Plain Talk” Jan. 10, 2026)

“It’s not just that they stole Venezuela’s president to steal its oil, it’s that they’re working to steal the whole damn country. To steal its sovereignty. Its right to conduct its own affairs on its own terms as an independent nation.” — Caitlin Johnstone.

“The word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” — Henry Kissinger.

The military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro violate all manner of civilised norms. The aggression against Venezuela’s independence and sovereignty does violence to international law and makes a mockery of the charter of the United Nations. The lack of swift and forceful condemnation by local and regional governments, CARICOM, the Organisation of American States (OAS), and the United Nations is a stark reminder of how far into the dark ages the world has descended. The rebirth of impunity has arisen.

A few things need to be made clear. Even if President Maduro was a dictator, which he is not, or if he were the head of a narco terrorist organisation, of which Tutsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence in Trump’s regime and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) say they have no evidence, the diabolical criminal assault on Venezuela, the bombing and wholesale murder of military and civilian personnel will forever remain illegal, unlawful and condemnable.

Note that the savagely cruel, depraved and barbaric act of aggression came after months of threats against a sovereign and independent nation. It was the culmination of maximum political, economic and military pressure on Caracas that witnessed the brutal extrajudicial executions of at least 122 Trinidadians, Venezuelans and Colombians for whom the United States became judge, jury and executioner. These people met their deaths on the spurious grounds that they were drug dealers transporting drugs from Venezuela to the United States of America.

This level of criminality carried out by any other country in our region or the world, except Israel, would have been met with swift condemnation by Kingstown, CARICOM, the OAS and other important world leaders and bodies. But here we are. Our government, mirroring CARICOM’s tepid expressions, said it’s taking a wait-and-see approach to the nasty developments in Caracas. Its statement mentioned international law and the United Nations Charter, but makes no call on the aggressor to comply with the UN Charter and respect the law. To its credit, the Bahamian government issued a statement calling on both sides to comply with international law and the charter. What can we do is not an option!

Ralph Gonsalves, for all his rhetoric and undeserved reputation as a progressive and a friend of President Maduro and Venezuela, was even worse. He could not bring himself to condemn the American aggression. He described President Maduro’s kidnapping as “a taking”

He said: “Some might have expected me to make a more forceful statement, but I want to have resolution.”

His supporters, who eagerly waited for his presser on Monday, must have been grossly disappointed. They wanted bragging rights and hoped he would make a strong statement they could contrast with our government’s. Alas, they were deflated. Gonsalves sheepishly declared, “I don’t want to get into narratives as to whether it has to do with oil or regime change.”

Are you kidding me! Trump, gloating about the successful kidnapping of President Maduro, said he was now running the country and that they would be selling Venezuelan oil. Worse, the American president announced that they will confiscate 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude. Claiming to avoid the narrative of oil and regime change exposes a deeper, darker motive beyond the scope of this piece. 

Bringing the events in Caracas sharply into focus, Caitlin Johnstone, the brilliant Australian journalist, is on point when she declared, “It’s not just that they stole Venezuela’s president to steal its oil, it’s that they’re working to steal the whole damn country. To steal its sovereignty. Its right to conduct its own affairs on its own terms as an independent nation.”

The world has changed, and it has changed for the worse. The developed world, with the United States in the lead, is upending the rules-based order, which was intended to stitch together the international community after the Second World War, in which over 70 million people lost their lives.

We need look no further than the genocide in Gaza and the crimes against humanity committed by the Netanyahu regime against Palestinians with the full complicity of Western governments and the mainstream media. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been murdered, with a large percentage being women and children. Thousands more have been injured and maimed, while an untold number are currently starving to death. Yet the rulers in Washington, London and Brussels continue to lend military, economic, political and diplomatic support to Israel’s genocidal regime.

Countries and institutions, big and small, are told to shut up, move out of the way or else. As we saw with Antigua, Dominica and Grenada, you offer even the slightest difference to the diktat of the big colossus to the north, and you are punished. The Trump regime has sanctioned less; we forget, respected justices of the International Court of Justice for highlighting Israeli criminality in Gaza. So has Francesa Albanese, the courageous UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine.

Trump has, on a whim, labelled Colombia’s exemplary president Gustavo Petro, a drug dealer who makes and sends cocaine to the USA, all because President Petro opposes Israel’s genocide in Gaza, defends international law, the UN Charter and the sovereignty and independence of Venezuela.

He has threatened to invade and swallow up Greenland, a protectorate of Denmark and claims that Canada should become America’s 51st state.  These are the tactics and actions of gangsters, bandits and pirates.

As Trump enforces what he egotistically terms the Donroe Doctrine, which reimagines and reasserts the views proclaimed in 1823 by President James Monroe — that Washington’s sphere of influence is the entire western world and any intervention by foreign powers in the would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States — a close eye has to be kept on leaders of large and small states to see whether they simply become vassals of the US or offer dignified resistance.

 *Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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