ISSE Statement on the U.S. Capture of Nicolás Maduro
The use of military force to capture or kill a foreign head of state constitutes one of the most severe departures from the legal order governing relations between states. It suspends the norms that ordinarily constrain sovereignty, jurisdiction, and the use of force, placing executive power beyond established legal limits. When undertaken in this manner without authority under international or domestic law, such actions pose grave risks to democratic governance and the international legal order, and exemplify what legal and political theorists, and those of us here at ISSE, have described as a state of exception.
While the United States has not recognized Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president across multiple administrations, non-recognition does not confer legal authority to use military force, seize territory, or exercise sovereign control over another state. The January 3 military operation that resulted in the seizure of Maduro and his wife constitutes a clear violation of international law, including the United Nations Charter, as it was carried out without Security Council authorization, a valid claim of self-defense, or the clear consent of Venezuelan authorities. References to a controversial 1989 Office of Legal Counsel opinion do not alter this conclusion: such opinions are internal executive interpretations, not binding legal precedent, and cannot independently authorize the use of force. As such, these actions represent a profound attack on the principle of rule of law, and will further erode the rules-based international order established largely through the efforts of the United States, following World War II.
That order has been under pressure for several decades, beginning with the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq, which weakened constraints on unilateral uses of force, and continuing through Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, and China’s increasing threats to take Taiwan by force. Such precedents matter: each unpunished breach lowers the threshold for the next. Since assuming power in 2025, the current United States administration has also threatened to seize control of Greenland, has issued similar threats against Panama and Canada, and according to President Trump, now claims to be exercising authority over Venezuela in some arbitrary manner for as long as circumstances dictate.
In reality, assertions that the United States now exercises authority over Venezuela lack any recognizable legal foundation. While conditions on the ground will ultimately determine the durability of such claims, the assertion of sovereign control over another country absent lawful authority exemplifies the logic of an illiberal state. It is precisely this normalization of exceptional power, unchecked by law, that ISSE exists to identify, illuminate, and strengthen guardrails against.
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash.
