Repubblika condemns the grave damage being done to the international rule of law by the recent actions of the United States in forcibly removing Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela.
We have no sympathy whatsoever for Nicolás Maduro. His record of repression, corruption, and abuse of human rights is extensively documented, and accountability for his crimes is both necessary and overdue. However, accountability must be pursued through international law — not by unilateral military action that disregards the sovereignty of states and established legal norms.
Crimes committed by heads of state must be investigated and prosecuted through recognised international mechanisms, including international tribunals where appropriate. The alternative — powerful countries acting as judge, jury, and executioner — erodes the legal order painstakingly built since the Second World War.
If states can wake up one morning and invade, occupy, or extract leaders from another country without regard for international law or the international community, we are not advancing justice. We are rewinding centuries of slow and fragile progress and moving back towards a world governed by force rather than law. That path leads not to accountability, but to global anarchy.
Small countries have the most to lose from such a breakdown. Malta knows this from centuries of colonial domination and exploitation. International law, respect for sovereignty, and multilateral institutions are not abstract ideals for small states — they are essential protections.
Repubblika therefore calls on the Maltese authorities to speak out clearly and publicly. Malta must call on the United States to restrain its actions within the confines of international law and to respect the sovereignty of states, regardless of how objectionable their governments may be. Silence in the face of such precedents weakens the very principles on which small states depend.
The defence of international law must be consistent and universal. No country, however powerful, should be allowed to place itself above it.