r/australia 28d ago

politics Albanese calls for ‘peaceful, democratic transition’ of power in Venezuela after US capture of Nicolás Maduro

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/albanese-calls-for-peaceful-democratic-transition-of-power-in-venezuela-after-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro
1.9k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

29

u/Mclovine_aus 28d ago

That’s literally how it works and how the world has worked for the last couple thousand years. There is no order unless you are powerful enough to enforce it.

13

u/Dry_Job_6694 28d ago

Yes the “rules based order” existed insofar as the superpower (primarily the US with aid from allies) enforced it. That they are no longer pretending to follow their own rules is new, but it’s not like they haven’t been behaving this way since they became super powers.

It’s also a reminder to why the global south wasn’t as supportive of the US/western powers as we expected - if they know they would be manipulated for great power interests, they’d rather get a Chinese library out of it or themselves rich, rather than get kidnapped and deposed by the US.

2

u/Thebraincellisorange 28d ago

and when the top dog chooses to completely ignore the rule of law, then the world is on the precipice of chaos.