Kemi Badenoch says US action in Venezuela was ‘morally’ right
Ms Badenoch said ‘what happens in Greenland has got to be up to the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark’.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the US military action in Venezuela was “morally” the right thing to do.
Saturday’s raid on Caracas saw then president Nicolas Maduro captured and taken to New York.
Among the international laws the US may have breached, if it provides no justification for the attacks, is the founding charter of the United Nations.
Article 2 of the UN Charter says all members should refrain from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
Speaking on a visit to Pinner in northwest London on Tuesday, Ms Badenoch told the Press Association: “What really matters is making sure that Venezuela has a transition to a democracy, something we’ve been calling for and working on.
“Nothing happened until the US went in – now the legal basis is for them to explain, but morally I think that they have done the right thing.”
It comes as Donald Trump continues to threaten to annex Greenland, with the US president insisting that taking over the semi-autonomous Danish territory is vital for his country’s national security.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that efforts to take over the territory by force would mean the end of the Nato military alliance.
Ms Badenoch said there was a “big difference between going into a gangster state and taking the leader of a brutalist regime versus a democratic place like Greenland”.
The Conservative leader added: “What happens in Greenland has got to be up to the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark is a Nato ally. We stand by them.
“We need to remind Donald Trump about the importance of Nato.
“When America had its problems in the Middle East, Nato stood beside them. It is now time for them to stand with Nato.”
Ms Badenoch was joined by shadow chancellor Mel Stride and shadow housing minister David Simmonds during her visit to marketing compliance agency PromoVeritas on a snowy morning in London.
Maduro and his wife were seized from their home on Saturday in a middle-of-the-night military operation in which the US carried out strikes on Caracas.
He appeared at a court in New York on Monday, when he pleaded not guilty to “narco-terrorism” charges and claimed he was a prisoner of war.
