Senators alarmed over US attack on Venezuela

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January 5, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Senators expressed alarm and caution yesterday following the United States’ surprise military extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with lawmakers raising concern over the operation’s implications for international law and the safety of Filipinos in the region.

Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, said the capture of Maduro and his wife and their eventual transport to the US raise “serious questions under international law.”

“The situation in Venezuela underscores long-standing concerns regarding the role of major powers in the internal affairs of states they consider strategically important,” Marcos said in an official statement, drawing parallels between the Venezuela raid and previous American interventions in the Middle East and Latin America.

She listed a history of US foreign policy actions, noting that Washington has been “associated with policies that have supported political transitions or leadership changes in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Panama, Nicaragua and the Philippines.”

“The removal or extraction of a foreign leader from his home country may raise serious questions under international law, and could send troubling signals to the international community, potentially reinforcing perceptions that power, rather than rules, determines outcomes in global affairs,” Marcos said.

For his part, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada emphasized that the Philippine government’s priority must be the thousands of overseas Filipino workers potentially caught in the middle of the unfolding political upheaval in Caracas.

“Our first and foremost concern should be the well-being and safety of our kababayans who may be affected by the evolving situation in Venezuela,” Estrada said.

While acknowledging the complexity of the conflict, he advised against immediate condemnation, noting the US government’s framing of the extraction as a law enforcement mission based on federal indictments.

“At this point, it is premature to conclude whether international law has been violated, especially as the United States government maintains that the incident was part of a law-enforcement operation,” he said.