BY OUR FOREIGN AFFAIRS WRITER
THE WORLD was left reeling last night as the daring US snatch of Nicolas Maduro sparked a global firestorm, with Russia and China leading a chorus of fury against Donald Trump’s “cowboy” tactics.
While the US President basked in the glory of the “speed and violence” of the mission, the Kremlin reacted with cold-blooded rage. Moscow’s Foreign Ministry slammed the operation as a “grave violation of sovereignty,” demanding the immediate release of the socialist strongman and his wife, Cilia Flores.
In Beijing, the mood was equally toxic. Chinese officials described the lightning raid as “hegemonic behavior” that threatens to plunge South America into a bloody “state of terror.”
But while the East fumed, others were popping champagne. Argentina’s firebrand leader Javier Milei led the cheers, taking to social media to roar: “Liberty advances!” Closer to home, Venezuelan opposition icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado declared the “hour of freedom” had finally arrived, urging her countrymen to reclaim their nation from the ashes of the Maduro regime.
In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer took a more cautious tone, desperately trying to keep a “Special Relationship” distance from the carnage. The PM insisted Britain was not involved in the strike and called for “facts to be established” before any firm backing of the move.
The United Nations has been plunged into a weekend of emergency meetings, with human rights chiefs warning that Trump could face investigations over the “illegal abduction.”
As US warships reportedly steam toward New York with the high-profile prisoners on board, the globe remains on a knife-edge.
With Maduro’s generals in Caracas calling for “resistance” and US allies in Europe pleading for restraint, the fallout from the most audacious grab in history is only just beginning.
