Former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, currently special advisor to the Presidency for International Affairs, published an article in the English magazine The Economist in which he criticized the United States for the operation in which the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by American forces.
“The intervention in Venezuela raises a broader question that increasingly defines international politics: how can we live in a world without rules? Pillars of international law designed to regulate collective security, discipline global trade and promote human rights are being undermined simultaneously. Erosion, once started, is difficult to reverse,” Amorim wrote.
“As many have said, we are heading back towards a Hobbesian state, where military force is the main determinant of a country’s de facto independence and in which war is once again seen as a legitimate means of change,” added the advisor.
In addition to these criticisms, Amorim needled Washington by stating that Brazil is looking for partnerships with other countries and that others should do the same.
“The current geopolitical scenario reinforces Brazil’s choice to open up to cooperation with a wide range of partners, from Latin America to the BRICS and beyond. For most countries, investing in the diversification of partnerships and technological autonomy will continue to be the best path”, stated the former chancellor.
In an article published over the weekend in The New York Times, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) had also condemned the American operation in Venezuela, writing that “the United States bombings of Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president on January 3 are yet another regrettable chapter in the continued erosion of international law and the multilateral order established after the Second World War.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in Venezuela in a United States military operation and taken to New York, where they face charges in American federal court on charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and explosive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and explosive devices.
