US Action in Venezuela Morally Justified, Though Legal Basis Unclear — Kemi Badenoch

UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said the recent US military action in Venezuela was morally justified, even as she questioned the legal grounds for the operation.

Badenoch made the comments in interviews with the BBC, stating that she did not fully understand the legal framework behind former US President Donald Trump’s move to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power.

Despite her reservations, she argued that the action was morally defensible, citing what she described as Maduro’s repressive rule.

“Where the legal certainty is not yet clear, morally, I do think it was the right thing to do,” Badenoch said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

She described the intervention as “extraordinary” but said she could understand the motivation behind it.

“He was overseeing a brutal regime, and I’m glad he’s gone,” she added.

Badenoch acknowledged that the development raises wider concerns about international norms, warning that it could have implications for the global rules-based order.

According to her, the intervention “does raise serious questions about the rules-based order,” particularly in relation to how international law is interpreted and enforced.

So far, the UK government has avoided directly criticising the US action or stating whether it violated international law, maintaining instead that Maduro was an “illegitimate president.”

However, several opposition figures, including Labour MPs, as well as the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and Scottish National Party, have urged the government to formally condemn the action and label it illegal.

Reflecting on her personal background, Badenoch said her views were influenced by growing up under military rule.

“I grew up under a military dictatorship, so I know what it’s like to have someone like Maduro in charge,” she said, referring to her childhood in Nigeria before relocating to the UK at age 16.

She stressed, however, that such intervention should not be applied universally, cautioning against US involvement in democratic territories such as Greenland.

“There is a big difference between democratic states and the gangster state in Venezuela,” Badenoch said, adding: “What happens in Greenland is up to Denmark and the people of Greenland.”

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