NEW DELHI: On the US attack on Venezuela’s capital, Former Indian permanent representative to UN Geneva Dilip Sinha said that the US Operation in Venezuela was not an arrest, but abduction.
Sinha, while speaking to ANI, said that the US action is a vile violation of the international law.
He said, “This is not technically an arrest, but an abduction… The US doesn’t have jurisdiction in Venezuela. This is an abduction where a head of state has been kidnapped and taken to the US… It is a violation of international law,” he said.
He added that the US did this because he wanted to claim the massive oil reserves in Venezuela.
“The reason he has settled on is taking claim to the oil reserves of Venezuela. Because, while there is a lot of narco-terrorism from Latin America, in which the US is also implicated, there are not many reports from Venezuela. There are other countries in Latin America which have been involved in this and have been accused of cocaine smuggling,” he said.
“President Maduro had offered to cooperate with the US and have talks to address its problems. So it’s very strange that President Trump should have gone ahead and abducted him,” he added.
On India’s response to Venezuela’s crisis, he said that the position is in line with the general policy of being reticent in these matters.
He said, “It is in line with its attitude and its response to earlier such violations by the big powers and by other countries… There are other threats and violations of international law being committed by the big powers, and India has been generally very reticent in taking an upfront position on this. That is India’s policy,” he said.
Sinha further told ANI that the issue doesn’t concern India directly, but it affects India as its major allies are becoming aggressive.
“As far as the impact on India is concerned, I don’t think it should have much of an impact because our trade relations with Venezuela are very limited… But the fact that a superpower has violated international law with such impunity has to be looked at very seriously, and its impact on the overall state of the global order, which is in terrible shape, but now we are looking really at the precipice because we have the three superpowers in the world today, China, Russia, and the US, all behaving in an extremely aggressive manner,” he said.
On Saturday, Washington carried out a “large-scale strike against Venezuela”, and the deposed dictator, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and taken out of the country.
Maduro and Flores were captured in Caracas and flown out of the country in a joint operation involving intelligence agencies and US law enforcement.
Trump stated that Maduro and his wife have been indicted on charges of alleged “drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies” in the Southern District of New York and will face trial.
He said that American forces, working with law enforcement agencies, captured Maduro and his wife in a night-time operation. (ANI)
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