EU Hypocrisy Exposed Following US Imperialist Aggression in Venezuela

Mícheál Ó Síodhacháin

In the early hours of 3 January 2026, the world awoke to a dramatic escalation of U.S. military interventionism in Latin America. Hundreds of U.S. military aircraft and special forces units struck multiple sites across Venezuela, culminating in the capture and removal of President Nicolás Maduro. The attack was immediately justified by Washington with a litany of “pretexts” however, in his own words, U.S. President Donald Trump made the underlying motive unmistakably clear: “We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure… and we’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be.” This admission strips away all pretense of legal justification and reveals a nakedly imperialist agenda centering on the re-division of the world’s resources.

European Union leaders, who have spent the past four years presenting themselves as guardians and protectors of “international law” and a so-called “rules-based international order”, have responded with ambivalent restraint in their commentary on the attack. The silence stands in stark contrast to the reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was immediately denounced as an unlawful act of aggression, followed by sanctions, arms transfers, and near-daily invocations of legal and moral principle.

This comparison is revealing not because the response to Russia’s actions were unprecedented, but because the standards invoked then are being abandoned now. The EU’s refusal to clearly condemn the United States demonstrates that “international law,” as deployed by European leaders, is not a universal principle but a selectively applied political weapon. It is enforced against geopolitical rivals and suspended when violated by allies. Of course to many this has come as no surprise, we have spent the last three years seeing EU leaders condemning the Zionist state for their genocide of the Palestinian people in only the lightest of terms, while justifying Israel’s “right to defend itself”. So far no meaningful sanctions have yet been levied on the Zionist entity.

Ireland’s position is particularly revealing. The 26 county government routinely portrays itself as a defender of human rights and international multilateralism. In response to Ukraine, the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael spoke of the need to uphold sovereignty and called for the prohibition on the use of force. Yet when the United States abducts the president of a sovereign country in a special military operation openly justified by oil extraction, the Irish Government retreats into ambiguity, calling for “restraint” and “dialogue” rather than naming the act for what it is.

This is not an accident or a failure of courage of the government. It reflects the reality that the so-called rules-based international order is itself an imperialist one drawn along lines of imperialist blocs and spheres of influence. Institutions such as the United Nations do not stand outside these blocs, they are a function of them. The structure of the UN Security Council, dominated by permanent powers with veto rights, ensures that international law is subordinated to the strategic interests of the most powerful capitalist states. When those states act, legality becomes flexible, rhetorical, or irrelevant.

The EU, including the 26 county government, continues to appeal to this order not because it restrains international aggression between countries, but because it legitimises it when it suits their imperialist bloc. By invoking international law selectively, they preserve the appearance of principles while accommodating the realities of imperialist war. The result is a system in which invasions are condemned or ignored depending on who carries them out.

We as communists understand that international law, the UN or other similar institutions, do not protect the international working class but uphold and protect the current global imperialist system. For this reason we must not trust these institutions but uphold proletarian internationalism, and extend full solidarity and support for the Venezuelan people and all those exploited and oppressed within the international system of imperialism.