Over 100 Spanish jurists describe the kidnapping of President Maduro as a ‘crime of aggression.’

On Monday, international media reported that former judge Baltasar Garzon and more than one hundred Spanish legal and academic figures signed a manifesto rejecting the U.S. military incursion into Venezuela, which culminated in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

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The Spanish jurists and academics urged the international community to take measures to ensure respect for the United Nations Charter, in defense of “international legality,” and to clarify this event to “avoid precedents that severely erode the international legal order.”

They recalled that the use of armed force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state is expressly prohibited by Article 2.4 of the U.N. Charter, which is the “fundamental norm of the international legal order and has a peremptory character.”

Through their manifesto, the Spanish jurists underscored that the use of armed force against a territory permits only two exceptions: legitimate self-defense and express authorization by the United Nations Security Council. In the case of the U.S. attack on Venezuela, however, neither of those exceptions applies.

They also emphasized that the deprivation of liberty of President Maduro by U.S. military forces is “incompatible” with the regime of personal immunity for sitting heads of state.

They noted that Washington’s actions, in light of the U.N. Charter, could be classified as a “crime of aggression,” listed “among the most serious violations of the international legal order due to its consequences for peace, security and the fundamental rights of peoples.”

Other signatories of the manifesto include the dean of the University of La Coruña Law School Xulio Ferreiro; sitting judges Gonzalo Alcoba, Celima Gallego, Esther Gonzalez and Amaya Olivas; and retired judges Juan Romero Laguna, Juan Pedro Yllanes, Enrique Medina, Joan Agusti Maragall, Paloma Marin and Ascension Sole.

In an interview with the Spanish network La Sexta, Garzon elaborated on his critique of U.S. actions against Venezuela and President Maduro, specifying their lack of legitimacy and legal basis.

“The U.S. actions against Venezuela are absolutely illegal, the accusations of drug trafficking are false and the Cartel of the Suns does not exist and never has existed,” he said, highlighting that the accusations against the Venezuelan leader have kept changing because they lack factual support.

“Nothing that has been done against Venezuela is legal. The claim that President Maduro is head of the Cartel of the Suns is a mere instrumental claim to justify the illegal action that has been carried out,” Garzon stressed.

Baltasar Garzon is best known for pioneering the use of universal jurisdiction to prosecute serious international crimes. He rose to prominence in the 1990s as an investigating magistrate at Spain’s National Court, where he handled high-profile cases involving terrorism, drug trafficking and human rights abuses.

Garzon became internationally famous in 1998 when he issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, leading to Pinochet’s detention in London and setting a global precedent for holding former heads of state accountable for crimes such as torture and crimes against humanity.

Currently, he remains influential as a human rights advocate and legal adviser, working with international organizations and governments on transitional justice, accountability mechanisms and the fight against impunity, and continuing to shape debates on international criminal law.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: La Sexta – Tercera Informacion

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