Prophetic misery: US attack on Venezuela and erosion of international law

In 1829, the revolutionary independence leader Simon Bolivar wrote that the United States seemed "destined by Providence to plague the Americas with misery in the name of Freedom." His fears first materialized when Washington supported a coup in Panama to secure the canal, justifying the intervention through the rhetoric of freedom. But Bolivar couldn’t predict that this "misery in the name of freedom" would expand globally, justifying violations of international law from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the destabilization of Libya under the guise of protecting civilians. Now it’s Venezuela and its "narcoterrorism" under Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship, which threatens U.S. security with fentanyl traffic. Never mind that Venezuela doesn’t produce the synthetic opioid, that Colombia, Bolivia and Peru are the largest cocaine sources, or that Mexico is the largest fentanyl supplier. The Trump administration’s concern for drug trafficking is demonstrably selective, as he recently pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, Honduras' former president convicted of drug trafficking anWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times