In a shocking act of aggression, the US has struck deep within a sovereign state, abducting its elected president, Nicolas Maduro, along with First Lady Cilia Flores. This is an assault on international law, peaceful conflict resolution and the very idea of sovereign equality. This pattern is neither new nor isolated. From Panama, Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Honduras to Iran, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, American power has repeatedly overridden popular will. Leaders who defy US dictates pay a heavy price. The message has remained consistent: sovereignty is tolerated only when it aligns with power. Now, Iran stands under similar pressure, while Israel, armed with an undeclared nuclear arsenal, enjoys total impunity across Palestine and the wider region. These double standards expose the hollowness of the so-called ‘rules-based order’.
Meanwhile, global institutions remain crippled. The UN General Assembly speaks, but cannot act and the Security Council acts selectively, paralysed by veto power. History now stands at a forked road. Either diplomacy, restraint and law prevail or the world slides into a neo-imperial anarchy where power alone decides fate.
Qamer Soomro
Shikarpur
