Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela reportedly killed around 80 people, and resulted in the abduction of its president, Nicolás Maduro. And UK MPs have told the Canary that Labour’s bootlicking position on this breach of international law is ‘pathetic and reckless’.

“The UK is nothing more than a vassal state of the US” – and not just over Venezuela

Your Party’s Jeremy Corbyn called Trump’s assault on Venezuela:

a blatant and flagrant violation of international law.

He added that Keir Starmer’s:

failure to condemn this illegal act of war typifies a government that is completely devoid of morality, common sense or independence from US foreign policy.

And remembering the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, he stressed that:

Many of us were there the last time a Labour PM blindly followed the warmongering whims of a US President.

Your Party’s Zarah Sultana, meanwhile, said:

This Labour government’s claims to respect international law, human rights, and sovereignty were exposed as a sham in Gaza, and they’ve been exposed again now. Starmer refuses to condemn this blatantly illegal imperialist aggression, this outright gangsterism from the US, because he stands for nothing – and because under his leadership, the UK is nothing more than a vassal state of the US.

“Shameful and reckless” appeasement

Labour MP Richard Burgon, meanwhile, attacked his party’s position on Venezuela by saying:

European governments, including our own, have responded with pathetic weakness — effectively giving Trump the green light. The Prime Minister’s statement was shameful and reckless, casting aside international law to appease Donald Trump. The response should have been exactly the same as if Putin had carried out an illegal bombing and kidnapping. You either believe in international law or you don’t — and you don’t get to pick and choose.

He added that allowing the US to get away with its behaviour could have negative repercussions for the whole of Latin America, insisting:

What we are witnessing is a new form of US gangster politics, where might is right and naked colonialism is openly embraced once again. Today the immediate target is Venezuela, but this is only the first step in a much wider strategy. This is not just an oil grab — it is a power grab, aimed at reasserting US control over the entire region and beyond.

Trump’s National Security Strategy makes this agenda explicit. It openly signals support for installing far-right governments in Europe and makes clear that Latin America is once again to be treated as a US colony. By pledging to ‘return to the Monroe Doctrine’, the United States is claiming total control over the region’s resources, geography and security — a threat already felt from Colombia and Mexico to Cuba and the wider Caribbean.

The US has long seen Latin America as its sphere of influence, and the Monroe Doctrine insisted in the 19th century that European powers should not interfere in the politics of the Western Hemisphere. Instead, Washington has long asserted its own dominance in the Americas.

Trump has openly asserted that his actions are updating the policy into a ‘Donroe Doctrine‘.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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