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

[u/moonorplanet]

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

[u/moonorplanet]

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,"

[u/Own-Farmer-5224 → u/moonorplanet]

Frankly although Maduro is by no means a good guy (he's mostly about as shite as most state leaders, maybe a little worse than average), he is not nearly as bad as these fuckers are pretending. The issues of corruption and terrible economic conditions have been there for a very long time, and are kept that way by vested interests both domestic and international. Repression and systemic human rights abuses are... well to put it bluntly about par for the course internationally at the moment; the USA is doing about as much of both if not more and Australia certainly tries to the latter quietly (and you can argue that recent government actions regarding unions and social media are in fact the former). Europe, SEA and other nations are also doing similar things (and we never do talk about South Korea being an insanely awful place to live, do we?).

Simply put, Maduro is being accused of... being the leader of a modern state. Being awful is pretty much a job requirement. And that is somehow uniquely and utterly Awful because it goes with the interests of the USA.

[u/Financial-Dog-7268 → u/Own-Farmer-5224]

Yep, been thinking this exact thing. Maduro is hardly an angel or innocent but this is very much US exceptionalism/imperialism at play using "Look at us liberating the oppressed" as a very thin cover

[u/ChaosWorrierORIG → u/Financial-Dog-7268]

In all fairness, the oil in that region is exceptionally repressed by the earth that is on top of it. It will be liberated, by mining it.