Eluned Morgan releases video attacking Trump over seizure of Maduro

Martin Shipton

Eluned Morgan has released a video in which she makes it clear that she is wholly opposed to the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their home in the nation’s capital Caracas.

In doing so the First Minister has been much more forthright than Keir Starmer, who has been reluctant to condemn the abduction, which took place on January 3.

In the video Baroness Morgan states: “I want to say something about Venezuela, a country that’s had its fair share of trouble and corruption over recent years.

“Nicolas Maduro was a bad leader. He failed his country and his people economically, morally, politically. But - and this matters - one country does not get to run another country. Talk about the United States controlling Venezuela, even temporarily - that crosses a really dangerous line.

"Justice doesn’t come from military force. Democracy doesn’t come as a result of one leader deciding the fate of a different country. There are serious crimes - they need to be dealt with through international law, proper institutions and due process. Not through chest thumping or power plays.

“The people of Venezuela - their future should be decided by themselves, not by people from outside of their nation. If we don’t stand up to this we’ll forgo our responsibility, and our opportunity to stand up against Trump’s threats against Greenland. Bad leadership of course should be challenged, but poor leadership and bullying is simply not acceptable, And history tells us that when powerful countries claim the right to run others, it’s the people who suffer.”

Asked whether he thought Baroness Morgan had made the video deliberately to distance herself from Sir Keir Starmer, Blaenau Gwent Labour MS Alun Davies said: “No - I don’t think so. If she wanted to do that there are other issues she could have chosen.

“It’s very powerful. I think she means it and was speaking from the heart.

You have to remember that she was a Member of the European Parliament and is very supportive of the Articles in the Declaration of Human Rights.

“She believes strongly in those European values and will be very conscious of the threats that have been issued against Greenland, which is linked to one of our oldest allies, Denmark.”

Mr Davies said his take on what Trump had done was determined by the fact that he was increasingly unpopular and that the Republican Party was likely to do very badly in the mid-term elections in November.

He said: “Trump and his advisers have begun the year with a sense of being in a hurry, and I think that’s linked to the mid-terms.

“The primary elections will be under way by the spring. I have no doubt that Trump is despised by many senior Republicans, but so far it hasn’t suited them to move against him. That’s likely to change if it becomes clear that the party is going to do very badly in November.

“I don’t know if Trump is going to invade Greenland, but it’s very possible that he will. The reaction in Europe will be one of absolute fury if he does so. Greenland is not defendable from a military point of view, but there would most definitely be serious repercussions for the US. I think it’s very likely it would signal the end of his presidency.”

Starmer has been criticised for failing to condemn Trump unequivocally over the seizure of Maduro. He and other ministers have backed a “wait and see” approach, saying they back the rule of international law, but are waiting to see Trump’s legal justification for the action.

In a Times Radio interview, veteran journalist Adam Boulton told Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones that he sounded “pathetic” when sitting on the fence over the kidnapping of Maduro, who has been arraigned on drugs and weapons charges that he denies.

Starmer has, however, been firm in his view on Greenland, stating: “Denmark is a close ally in Europe, is a Nato ally and it is very important that the future of Greenland is for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland themselves and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark."