Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has condemned US President Donald Trump’s removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as an act of “absolute illegality and illegitimacy,” describing the operation as a “literal kidnapping” that violates international law.
Writing on the X social network, Fernández de Kirchner said the Trump administration had “crossed a line again, one many of us thought would never be crossed again,” after Maduro was detained in Caracas and transferred to the United States to face charges linked to drug-trafficking.
The veteran Peronist leader said the operation breached “the United Nations Charter, international law and the most basic common sense,” warning that it had created “a scenario of high instability” in Venezuela and set a dangerous precedent in global affairs.
“This was the literal kidnapping of a president and his wife,” she wrote, adding that the action would legitimise future violations of sovereignty by militarily and economically powerful states against weaker nations.
Fernández de Kirchner posted her statement just hours after being discharged from a hospital in Buenos Aires, where she had been recovering from appendicitis surgery. She is currently under house arrest following her conviction in the so-called ‘Vialidad’ corruption case, a ruling she has consistently rejected as politically motivated.
In her remarks, the ex-president dismissed Washington’s justification for the operation, rejecting claims that it was aimed at restoring democracy in Venezuela or combating drug-trafficking. She claimed the objective of the so-called ‘Operation Absolute Resolution’ was “to seize the world’s largest reserve of conventional oil, openly.”
Fernández de Kirchner, who led Argentina from 2007 to 2015, before later returning for a four-year spell as vice-president, noted that the operation had resulted in multiple deaths, arguing that it established a precedent that could enable territorial appropriation or the seizure of natural resources by force.
The opposition leader linked the episode to what she described as the long-standing application of Washington’s ‘Big Stick’ policy in Latin America, a doctrine associated with early 20th-century US president Theodore Roosevelt. That approach, she said, had historically justified military interventions, covert support for coups and the installation of violent military dictatorships across the Latin American region.
“Far from benefitting the United States, these policies generated hostility and, in many cases, economic and social backwardness in the countries affected,” argued the ex-president.
Fernández de Kirchner has long maintained close political ties with Venezuela. During her presidencies from 2007 to 2015, Argentina developed a strategic alliance with the governments of Hugo Chávez and later Maduro, marked by energy agreements, financial cooperation and shared opposition to US influence in the region.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
Comments