A SOUTH Cumbrian MP has called on all the UK’s political leaders to ‘condemn’ President Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, has compared President Trump’s actions in Venezuela at the weekend to the contested US and UK invasion of Iraq in 2003.
On Saturday, January 3, the US launched air strikes on Venezuela’s capital Caracas before Nicolas Maduro, the nation’s then president, was captured by elite US forces and flown to the US to face criminal charges.
Mr Farron said: “Maduro is an illegitimate and brutal dictator…but the US has acted in a dangerous and illegal way which sets a precedent that will delight the despots leading Russia and China.
“Just as it was wrong for the US and the UK to invade Iraq illegally in 2003, no matter how awful Saddam Hussein clearly was, it is wrong for the US to break international law with regard to Venezuela.
“All UK leaders should condemn Donald Trump’s actions - especially as he has now reignited his threats to Denmark and Greenland.
“History proves that there is nothing to be gained from appeasing bullies.
"Britain and our other NATO allies need to show real strength and unity at this time.
“It is disappointing that both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition have been so timid in their responses.”
Following US military action on Saturday, President Trump said that the US would now ‘run’ Venezuela following Maduro’s ousting.
However, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, has stated that America would not be running Venezuela on a day-to-day basis, but instead the country would continue to enforce an existing oil quarantine on the nation to control governance.
Maduro’s former vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, is now Venezuela’s new president.
Reacting to the US’s actions at the weekend, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated that UK would ‘shed no tears’ over Maduro’s regime being ended.
He also noted that the UK had ‘long supported a transition of power in Venezuela’.
Furthermore, he reiterated his support for international law in his statement.
However, on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme, Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, refused to be drawn on whether he thought airstrikes on Caracas on Saturday were legal or not.
Mr Jones said that it was up to ‘international courts’ to decide, and that it was for the US ‘to set out the legal basis for their operations.’
The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Dame Priti Patel, of the Conservative Party, told Trevor Phillips: “The fact that Maduro has gone, we [the Conservatives] absolutely support.
“This guy was an oppressive tyrant.
“He was a complete dictator, responsible for sorts of terrible things and I think that’s welcome.”
Ms Patel did, however, state that there were “political questions about what that pathway to democracy is going to be for Venezuela.”
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