The U.S. Attacks Against Venezuela: Does Might Make Right?
Public Forum with Professors Milena Sterio and Kyle Shen
On January 3, U.S. forces launched an attack against Venezuela. In the early hours of the same day, U.S. forces captured and kidnapped Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro as well as his wife; within hours both were transferred to the Southern District of New York, where a criminal indictment had been pending against Maduro since 2020, and where a newly filed indictment added Maduro's wife and so as co-defendants. The indictment charges them with conspiracy to traffic drugs and arms into the United States.
Cleveland State University College of Law Professors Milena Sterio and Kyle Shen will discuss the relevant international law issues surrounding this extraordinary turn of events. Did the U.S. attack against Venezuela violate the international law prohibition on the use of force? Can the U.S. rely on any exceptions to this prohibition, such as self-defense, or can the U.S. claim that its intervention was authorized or invited by Venezuela? Are other historical precedents, such as the 1989-90 invasion of Panama, and the subsequent prosecution of the ousted Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega, relevant today, and do they provide justification for the Trump Administration's actions in Venezuela? Does the principle of head of state immunity bar the prosecution of Nicolas Maduro in U.S. court? Is the fact that Maduro was kidnapped relevant for the purposes of U.S. federal court jurisdiction? Finally, what is the status of international law in the U.S., and is international law binding on our executive branch?
This event is sponsored by the CSU Law International Law Center.