A Revolutionary Communist Party correspondent has said people “don’t need to be a communist” to be outraged by the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking on GB News, Latin America correspondent Jorge Martin condemned what he described as “US imperialism”, arguing Donald Trump had no right to remove the sitting head of a sovereign state.
After ordering air strikes on Caracas, Donald Trump confirmed the Venezuelan President had been seized and flown out of the country.
Both Mr Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been charged following indictments filed in the Southern District of New York.
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Mr Martin said the issue went beyond ideology, insisting it was a basic question of democracy and international law.
“You don’t need to be a communist, I am a communist, but you don’t need to be one to be outraged by this,” he said.
“You just need to be a consistent democrat.”
GB News presenter Nana Akua challenged the claim, arguing that democrats could not support Maduro because he had not legitimately won an election.
Nana argued that democrats could not support Maduro because he had not legitimately won an election
|GB NEWS
Nana responded: “I hear what you’re saying, but if you are a democrat, then you wouldn’t really support a leader who has just been deposed, because he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. He didn’t win the election.”
Mr Martin replied: “This has nothing to do with elections.
"Donald Trump has also threatened the democratically elected president of Colombia and the democratically elected president of Mexico, elections that have not been contested by anyone.
"He has said to them: ‘You are next in line unless you submit to US demands.’”
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President Maduro will stand trial in the US on 'criminal charges' | REUTERS “I hear you, but that is a warning. But Maduro..”
Mr Martin interrupted: “A warning of what? A warning of military intervention, surely.
"He hasn’t been specific, but look at what he said to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro he called him a drug trafficker and said he was ‘next in line’."
Nana said: "On the word of on democracy. Maduro was not running a democratic regime. He didn't win the election. He actually just took it and carried on even though he wasn't elected as leader."
Mr Maduro is set to appear in a New York court, facing multiple drugs and weapons offences.
Dramatic footage earlier showed Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being escorted in handcuffs to the courthouse, flanked by armed officers.
The couple were seized at their Caracas compound on Saturday and flown to the US.
At an emergency UN Security Council meeting, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “concerned that rules of international law have not been respected” in relation to the operation.