(RightWing.org) – Former President Donald Trump has plenty of legal problems right now. He’s currently facing a range of federal charges related to classified documents removed from the White House. Now he’s also being investigated for crimes against humanity — but he probably doesn’t have much to worry about from this. The new probe has been launched by Venezuela’s dictatorial leader.
Regime Announces Investigation
On July 6, the Venezuelan National Assembly voted to begin an investigation of Trump on alleged charges of crimes against humanity. The charges are related to sanctions Trump imposed on the country in response to socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed 2018 election victory. Maduro’s presidency has been declared illegitimate by the Organization of American States (OAS); he isn’t recognized as the country’s legitimately elected ruler by the OAS, the US, Canada, around a dozen other countries and parts of Venezuela’s own government. However, despite the sanctions, he’s still in office — and now he’s pushing back.
The National Assembly members who voted to investigate Trump are Maduro supporters — he’s packed the legislature and supreme court with his backers — and in Venezuela’s authoritarian political system, it’s fairly safe to assume they’re doing what the president wants them to. United Socialist Party legislator Pedro Infanta told reporters the allegation against Trump is that he admitted he wanted “to make [Venezuela] collapse and practically steal the oil.”
Maduro seems to be obsessed with the idea the US wants to steal his country’s oil reserves. In 2020 he claimed a US spy had been captured near two oil refineries in northwest Venezuela. In turn, the US blames Maduro and his predecessor as president, fellow socialist Hugo Chavez, for wrecking the country’s once-thriving economy.
What Can Venezuela Do?
Now it looks like Maduro, emboldened by Trump’s legal troubles, has decided to jump on the bandwagon. If the “investigation” into Trump’s alleged crimes — and imposing sanctions on a country’s oil industry isn’t a crime against humanity under international law — is carried out by any organization linked to the Venezuelan government, the result is a foregone conclusion; Trump will be found guilty. The question is, will that actually mean anything, either in legal terms or for Trump’s 2024 election campaign?
The answer is probably not. A government that isn’t recognized by much of the world won’t have much success at pressing charges for something that isn’t a breach of international law. As for Trump’s likely voters in the US, they’re not going to be put off by a ruling made by a politically motivated court in a socialist country like Venezuela.
Copyright 2023, RightWing.org
