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COWBOY CAPITALISM, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE RIGHTS TO SOVEREIGNTY OF THE STATE

By Iqbal Suleiman

The violent kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro, the elected President of Venezuela was inhumane, barbaric and unlawful. It nakedly exhibits the Yankee cowboy character of the American Empire.

To begin with, this was not a “capture” of a person as has been presented by the mainstream media from CNN, BBC, Sky and Al Jazeera.  By using the word “Capture”, the media creates the impression that the U.S and Venezuela are at war and Maduro was “captured” during a war.  This is not about semantics. To present the violent kidnapping as “capture” is to misrepresent the facts and distort the truth. This is clearly a case of “kidnapping” in clear violation of international law. The truth is that the richest and most powerful military entered a sovereign state like goons with guns and bombs at night, killed innocent people and kidnapped the head of state and his wife from their home.

Donald Trump and his administration is unique primarily because they expresses openly and without pretence the racist settler mentality of the American Empire and the philosophy of Cowboy Capitalism. There are no subtleties or subterfuge.  Trump says that he will be in charge of Venezuela and American Corporations “Capitalists” will go in and fix (steal) Venezuela’s oil.

When the racist’s settlers invaded America, the Imperialists defined the Native Americans in two categories, the “hostiles” and the “friendlies”. The friendlies were the ones were co-opted and sold out to Empire, they were willing to be slaves and do the settlers bidding, allowing the settlers complete control and authority over their land and resources. The hostiles were independent, free and militantly anti-capitalist. They believed in the shared ownership of wealth and the equality of human beings. They cherished their freedom and human dignity. They chose to die fighting the Empire rather than bowing down to their oppressors. In the famous words of the Sioux Resistance Leader, the martyr Crazy Horse “You cannot sell the earth upon which people walk”.

To Trump and the American Empire, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro are like Crazy Horse, “hostiles” because they are socialists who refuse to allow American Capitalists to steal Venezuelan oil.

Hugo Chavez led the socialist revolution in Venezuela and kicked out the American Capitalists. Principled and popular, he was democratically elected. He was in the words of Empire, a “hostile” because he believed that the natural wealth of Venezuela should not be usurped by American Capitalists but belongs to the people of Venezuela. He was a democratic socialist opposed to Cowboy Capitalism. After his passing, he was succeeded by Nicholas Maduro who also refused to bow down and sell out even when threatened with violence by Trump.

For those who suffer from political amnesia, the policy of anti-democratic regime change is in the DNA of the American Empire. Mossadegh was the democratically elected leader of Iran and was ousted by the CIA orchestrated coup on 19 August 1953 because he nationalised the oil of Iran. The CIA then imposed Reza Pahlavi to rule Iran. He was just a puppet of Uncle Sam who allowed the U.S to usurp Iranian oil. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 overthrew the Shah’s regime and Iranian oil went back into the control of the Iranian people. The cowboy capitalists were kicked out and ever since then the U.S considers an independent Iran as “hostile”.  Similarly, the democratically elected socialist leader of Chile, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a CIA orchestrated coup on September 11, 1973 and replaced by the despotic Pinochet who bowed to America. The U.S is not motivated by freedom, human rights and democracy, it is motivated by money. This is capitalism, cold and crude.

Europe which presents itself as the cradle of democracy, human rights and the rule of law failed to condemn the kidnapping  and the violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain and a former human rights Barrister lent his support to the brazen barbarism of the Trump administration when he said that he will not shed any tears over Maduro’s kidnapping. The racism of the West has been nakedly exposed during the Gaza Genocide, the unlawful 12 day war against Iran and again now in the cowboy assault on Venezuela. To the West, international law and human rights don’t apply to the people of the Global South. This is the same West that lectured the world about Ukraine’s sovereignty when Russia attacked Ukraine but now not even a whisper about Venezuela’s sovereignty. The South African government which spoke truth to power in defence of international law, has been consistent. On Saturday, our government appealed to the United Nations Security Council to expedite a meeting and address the recent U.S military intervention in Venezuela including the detention of Nicholas Maduro and his spouse.  The South African foreign ministry said in a statement “Unlawful, unilateral force of this nature undermines the stability of the international order and the principle of equality among nations. Pretoria further stated that it views “U.S actions as a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which mandates all member states to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state’.

This is a critical moment in the history of international law and the right to sovereignty of every nation state. The impact and implications are global and beyond Venezuela. When the most powerful governments are allowed to conduct themselves like goons and gangsters with overt and tacit support from other governments, the “Cowboy State” becomes normalized. Cowboy Capitalism is entering unprecedented territory. How will the West react if tomorrow, Russia goes into Kyiv and kidnaps Zelensky or China goes into Taiwan and kidnaps its leader to try him in Beijing?

It is plainly evident that Trump has trumped up charges against Maduro. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has listed Maduro’s charges as “Conspiracy to import and export cocaine, possession of automatic weapons and dangerous devices, conspiracy to acquire more automatic weapons……”. This charge sheet is beyond bewildering. Every head of state is the commander in chief. Is there any government army that does not possess automatic weapons or attempt to purchase automatic weapon? These bizarre charges means that any head of state is fair game for kidnapping.

In this context, Pretoria’s principled position on international law and the inalienable right to sovereignty will be appreciated and studied decades down the line by students of international law and human rights activists.

Iqbal Suleiman

Suleiman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network

 

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