president Maduro captured after US strikes

[andy06shake]

Yep.

The fact is that Trump going into Venezuela and arresting Maduro and his wife is legal according to US Law.   We did the same thing with Panama 4 decades ago.   The courts went over it and said it's legal.   An international police action.   The Democrats coming out and saying it was an illegal move according to our law are flat out wrong and are just being partisan.

The problem comes after that when Trump said 'we will run Venezuela' for a while until a rightful president can be put in office.   That's not clear cut if he can do that according to US law.   And international law is even murkier.

The usual international players are lining up saying it's against international law or saying it's okay according to international law.   Opinions are flying in.   But it hasn't even been brought up in an international court.   It can't be.  Because it hasn't happened yet ... America isn't running Venezuela yet so there is nothing to rule on.

So we have to all just wait and see how it plays out with the lawyers.   And they can't do anything until Trump does something in regards to running Venezuela.   So far, what has been done is legal according to the US and has been done before (Panama).

 I don't think Panama is the clean precedent you assume.

It was controversial then and still is now.

And US courts never ruled "international police actions" are broadly legal, they mostly dodged the question.

As far as i can essablish your laws don't automatically allow grabbing a sitting foreign head of state without congressional authorisation.

And the democrats aren't inventing the dispute Flyers.

There are plenty of conservative legal scholars raising the exact same doubts.

International law doesn't wait for "running Venezuela" to start.

Using force and abducting their leader triggered it.

And saying "we'll wait for lawyers" pretty much ignores the legal damage, precedent, and escalation risks happening right now.