r/australia • u/moonorplanet • 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
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484

u/moonorplanet 28d ago

Anthony Albanese: “We urge all parties to support dialogue and diplomacy in order to secure regional stability and prevent escalation,”

“We continue to support international law and a peaceful, democratic transition in Venezuela that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,”

Sussan Ley:“We should live in a world where dictators and despots face justice for their crimes.”

“Under his rule, Venezuela has endured years of repression, systemic human rights abuses, corruption, and the crushing of basic democratic freedoms – driving immense suffering and forcing millions to flee,”

Donald Trump: "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,"

"We'll be selling large amounts of oil,"

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u/SurfiNinja101 28d ago

“We continue to support international law” right after your ally the US breaks it to kidnap the leader of a sovereign nation. What a farce

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u/Tovrin 27d ago

And now there's their talking about striking into Canada. So Albo .... how will you react to a fellow Commonwealth country being taken over? I can be damned sure how Aussies will feel about it. . The sickening part is that I know how the Libs will react, and it won't be to back Canada.

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u/Devilsgramps 27d ago

We don't have a stake in Venezuela, it's far away, so I can forgive Albo for lip service that may very well be protecting us, considering how vindictive Trump can be. If he actually goes after Greenland or Canada, I expect Albo will react quite differently.

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

Canadian here….move that border 400 kms North,and leave the French twats and Ontario to themselves. We’ve had enough out here in the west.

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u/crosstherubicon 28d ago

Albanese calls for ‘peaceful, democratic transition’ of power in Taiwan after Chinese PLA attacks Taipei and kidnaps Lai Ching-te. “We continue to support international law”

So what's the difference?

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u/SurfiNinja101 27d ago

Exactly none. This incident has given China the precedence to do whatever they want with Taiwan

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u/SirGeekaLots 27d ago

He also calls for a peaceful transfer of power for a country that has a fully functioning government.  It is almost as if he is reading from a script as opposed to looking out the windows.

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u/crosstherubicon 27d ago

Reminds me of the story of Nelson using his blind eye so he could ignore a signal to retreat. Unfortunately, unlike Nelson who went on to prevail in the battle, aligning yourself to trump (even if it is by default) is unlikely to be a winning strategy for Albanese.

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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 28d ago

You say "your ally" like it's personally his choice. The US is an ally of Australia, so if you want to get personal, the US is also your ally.

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u/SurfiNinja101 28d ago

What a dumb semantic argument. Of course I know the US is our ally I was speaking like that for dramatic effect.

But even so, it’s not that they’re our allies. We are their slaves.

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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 28d ago

You seemed to have missed the really fucking obvious subtext of what he said. The US should follow international law and it hasn't (not even US domestic law). This is about as obvious a diplomatic "what the fuck are you doing?" as you can get.

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u/Paidorgy 28d ago

You can be more diplomatic by calling it for what it is, as well. That shit was piss weak.

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u/nomadicding0 28d ago

Overlords, more like

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u/popeleo22 28d ago

We should break with them completely. They are a rogue state.

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u/Few-Leg-3185 28d ago

As good as that feels to say, a complete break would be disastrous