Xavier Bettel criticises Trump’s military strike against Venezuela as a violation of international law

Following the Luxembourg government’s late and very cautious communiqué regarding Donald Trump’s military strike against Venezuela, Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel has publicly criticised the intervention.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee Monday morning, Bettel acknowledged that the situation was difficult. “On the one hand, we are happy to be rid of him,” the DP foreign minister said with regard to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro. “But on the other hand, it just doesn’t work the way it happened. You can’t just go and take the president away.”

Maduro was a dictator who has oppressed many people and driven his country to ruin, Bettel said. But he was adamant that it is not up to the US president to administer Venezuela, rather, the Venezuelans themselves should decide their future.

Bettel argued that the military intervention was a violation of international law. This could give the impression that large states could do whatever they wanted. “As a very small country, we must realise that international law is basically our best guarantee,” Bettel said.

He said that it was currently difficult to find common ground in the EU. “Some are happy, others say it’s not possible. The truth lies in the middle,” he said.

Jean Asselborn, who served as foreign minister for 19 years, also said that the attack on Venezuela was unjustifiable. “There is really only one exception in international law where you can attack another country militarily: that is with a vote in the United Nations Security Council, where no one exercises their right of veto,” he told the Luxemburger Wort.

Spheres of influence

Asselborn was also wary about what sort of message the intervention sends to other superpowers. “If America is allowed to do this in its sphere of influence, as defined by the US, what does Putin think?” he asked. “And what does Xi think, who has said that, historically speaking, we have always claimed that Taiwan is Chinese, so I have the right to annex the country. That is the world today.”

Asselborn also believes it is possible that the intervention in Venezuela will not be Trump’s last act of aggression. “You think of Greenland, you think of Panama, why not Canada, why not Brazil …. there are no longer any limits to the imagination.”

It’s about the big principles, such as how this world can save itself from anarchy and prevent violence from becoming stronger than the law

Jean Asselborn

Former Luxembourg foreign minister

Like Bettel, Asselborn has little sympathy for Maduro and called the authoritarian ruler, who has been accused of numerous human rights violations, a “despicable individual”. But he said that Europe must know that it will only have a peaceful future if it defends the rule of law, democracy and the values we have upheld since the Second World War.

“It’s about the big principles, such as how this world can save itself from anarchy and prevent violence from becoming stronger than the law,” Asselborn concluded.

(This article is based on two stories, here and here, first published by Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated and edited by Duncan Roberts.)