The recent military operation ordered by President Donald Trump to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, carried out without a mandate from the UN Security Council, has reopened a profound debate about the credibility and real usefulness of the United Nations. For academics and diplomats, the episode marks one of the most delicate moments for the multilateral system since the end of World War II. Beyond the formal condemnations of the violation of the principle of sovereignty, the action in Venezuela has rekindled skepticism in the halls of the UN about its capacity to curb unilateral decisions by major powers. “There is a basic rule in international relations: states should not attack or capture the leaders of other states,” Thomas G. Weiss, a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), told EFE, warning that many governments are “alarmed” by the precedent. For Weiss, the central problem is not only the operation itself, but the “extremely broad” interpretation of self-defense used by Washington. “What is most worrying is that the United States maintains it can act as it pleases in the Western Hemisphere because it considers it its natural sphere of interests,” he explained, a stance that, according to experts, erodes the moral authority of the UN.

Washington’s “Double Standards” and the Mass Withdrawal from Treaties

President Donald Trump’s administration has justified the operation under an extremely broad interpretation of “self-defense” and the fight against drug trafficking. However, the challenge to the UN was direct during the recent Security Council session.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz questioned the very essence of the organization by asking: “What kind of organization is this that treats a democratically elected president the same as a narco-terrorist?”

Accompanying the military action, Trump signed an executive order this week to withdraw the US,of 66 international organizations and withdraw from various treaties, including 31 entities within the UN ecosystem.

For Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, the situation is critical because the attack on the system comes from its own founder. “When the superpower that helped create the UN violates the Charter, the entire order is threatened,” he stated.

Experts like Errol Mendes of the University of Toronto assert that this behavior reinforces the narrative of powers like China and Russia, who now feel validated to exercise the “law of the strongest” in their own spheres of influence.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appears to have his hands tied. With a Security Council paralyzed by the veto power and a rampant funding crisis, the UN risks going from being a guarantor of peace to becoming, in Weiss's words, a “complete fiction.”

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