The South African government has condemned the United States for its military strike in Venezuela on Saturday and the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, calling the actions a grave violation of international law and a dangerous escalation of geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said the intervention contravenes the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of sovereign states.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlawful, unilateral force of this nature undermines the stability of the international order and the principle of equality among nations,\u201d DIRCO said.<\/p>\n
The condemnation follows reports that US forces abducted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during coordinated operations in Caracas.<\/p>\n
The strike targeted key government institutions, with Washington announcing it would oversee Venezuela until a \u201cjudicious transition\u201d occurs.<\/p>\n
The US also declared it would take control of Venezuela\u2019s oil reserves, the largest in the world.<\/p>\n
Maduro has since been transferred to New York where he faces drugs and weapons charges in a federal court.<\/p>\n
Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Ch\u00e1vez in 2013, has denied US allegations of running a \u201cnarco\u2011state\u201d and insists Washington\u2019s true aim is to seize control of Venezuela\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n
The US move has drawn sharp criticism from governments and international organisations who argue the intervention sets a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary\u2011General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned the strike could embolden other powers to justify invasions, citing Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and concerns over Taiwan.<\/p>\n
South Africa has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address the crisis. The Council is scheduled to convene Monday.<\/p>\n
The US has not undertaken such a direct intervention in Latin America since its 1989 invasion of Panama to depose Manuel Noriega.<\/p>\n
Venezuela, despite its vast oil wealth, has suffered economic collapse over the past decade, with the UN estimating eight million refugees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The South African government has condemned the United States for its military strike in Venezuela on Saturday and the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, calling the actions a grave violation of international law and a dangerous escalation of geopolitical tensions. South Africa\u2019s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said the intervention contravenes the UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"APA News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,1129,30],"tags":[4004,4747,122,1269],"class_list":["post-19173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-security","category-southern-africa","tag-department-of-international-relations-and-cooperation-dirco","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-south-africa","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19174,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173\/revisions\/19174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}