Coalition needed to safeguard intl law

On Jan 3, the international community was shaken by the invasion of United States armed forces in Venezuela and the seizing of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. This action threw international law to the ground and aroused an alert throughout Latin America about what would be the next target of the US administration's imperialism.

This invasion was the culmination of an escalation of actions by Washington since 2015 that began with the sanctions that ruined the Venezuelan economy, destroyed its oil sector, drove millions of families into misery, and were responsible for the emigration of almost 7 million people.

The justification for the "kidnapping" of Maduro and his wife was the alleged participation of the couple, and other Venezuelan officials, in the alleged "Cartel de Los Soles", a criminal organization related to the supply of drugs to the US.

This false accusation is similar to the accusations that the war against Iraq in 2003 was justified by the possession of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein's government.

When a wolf wants to kill a lamb, as the fable says, he uses any argument, even if it is lying or illogical.

It is worth noting that this war operation did not have the approval of the US Congress, as required by the US Constitution, let alone the United Nations' approval. The powerful need no reason to commit actions that they consider appropriate to their interests.

The intended actions of the US government in the Western Hemisphere extend to the annexation of Greenland, threats against the government of Panama to retake the Panama Canal, pressure to sell ports controlled by Hong Kong companies, and pressure on Panama to withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative.

The US administration has also intervened to influence parliamentary elections in Argentina, Chile and Honduras and threatened the governments of Mexico, Cuba and Colombia as the next targets of the armed forces.

It also imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazil's exports to the US to halt the criminal case against former president Jair Bolsonaro for an attempted coup d'etat after the 2022 elections. Bolsonaro, however, was convicted and imprisoned.

After the "kidnapping" of Maduro, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the main objective of the US government was to remove "extra-regional" powers, such as China, Russia and Iran, from the Western Hemisphere, considered by Washington to be its backyard. US President Donald Trump, for his part, said that his administration's goal is to ensure the US' supply of strategic natural resources, especially oil and critical minerals. On Jan 9, the White House hosted a meeting with the presidents of the main US oil companies to discuss the resumption of production in Venezuela, the country with the largest proven oil reserves.

The US administration's actions resemble those of an out-of-control leader who rules according to his will, such as the Roman emperors Caligula, who would have appointed his horse as consul, and Nero, who burned Rome. But it is more than that. The measures taken by the US administration are supported by the Washington elite and the 2025 National Security Strategy, which mentioned that the Monroe Doctrine would be the organizing principle of US actions in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Monroe Doctrine refers to a policy that was created by US president James Monroe in 1823 to oppose European interference in the Western Hemisphere.

Given the recent expansionary moves of the US administration, the new strategy has been baptized the "Donroe Doctrine", a neologism that unites Trump's and Monroe's names.

This new strategy brings back the state of permanent war, something that the English thinker Thomas Hobbes called Homo homini lupus est, which is a Latin expression that means "man is a wolf to man" — that is, a world in which there are no rules and no justice, and in which violence is the only way to resolve differences. It is a prehistoric situation that precedes the implementation of the law, social norms and, mainly, ethics.

This new context is extremely serious for all of Latin America and the Caribbean, whose countries lack the military capabilities to defend their sovereignty and foreign policy options. Such a situation is dangerous for humanity, as the absence of rights and stable international norms puts world peace at risk.

In the midst of this very complex conjuncture, it is necessary to build a grand coalition among all the countries of the world to reinstitute the principle of international law and set clear rules not only for the stable coexistence between the great powers that have the means to "mutual assured destruction" through nuclear weapons, but mainly to guarantee the voice of countries of the Global South in a multipolar order that is democratic and inclusive. In this regard, it is worth considering the China-proposed global initiatives, especially the Global Governance Initiative, which provides a solid foundation for rebuilding a new institutional framework and preventing us from falling into the law of the jungle in international relations.

The author is a professor of international political economy at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.