The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, in a statement released on 4 January, expressed grave alarm and moral conviction in response to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and the unilateral assumption of control over Venezuela by the United States under President Donald Trump.
“This act is a flagrant violation of international law, an assault on national sovereignty, and a dangerous expression of imperial overreach that threatens the fragile global order,” reads the statement. “The justifications offered for President Maduro’s capture to combat corruption, drug trafficking, or authoritarianism do not withstand moral, legal, or theological scrutiny.”
The statement notes that criminal allegations do not grant any state the right to abduct a foreign leader, impose regime change, or act beyond the law. “To accept such reasoning is to normalize lawlessness and set a perilous precedent in which power, not law, governs international relations,” the text reads. “If powerful nations may now unilaterally seize leaders of weaker states, then international law has ceased to be law and has become merely a tool of the strong.”
The statement further notes that the future of Venezuela belongs to its people. “The history of U.S.-led invasions in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan demonstrates that such interventions rarely improve quality of life, governance, or democracy,” the message reads. “The devastation and instability that followed these actions are a foregone warning: there is no reason to believe Venezuela will fare differently under coercion and foreign control.”
The statement calls upon the United States to cease all actions that violate Venezuela’s sovereignty and to submit fully to international legal and diplomatic processes.
“We urge the United Nations and the global community to defend the rules-based order,” the statement reads. “We call on churches, faith communities, and people of conscience worldwide to resist imperial violence and uphold justice.”
The World Communion of Reformed Churches, on 3 January, also issued a statement on the situation in Venezuela. That message strongly condemns the illegal act of aggression by the United States in Venezuela.
“We are reminded that imperial systems that prioritise occupation, domination, control of resources, and the preservation of global privilege over human dignity are theological and moral challenges,” the statement reads. “They are not neutral, and faith communities are called to name, resist, and transform them.”
Full statement of United Congregational Church of Southern Africa
