Despite the U.S. president\u2019s admonishment about needing to be kept happy, one continent has stood out in its readiness to defy him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While U.S. President Donald Trump brashly cited the Monroe Doctrine to explain the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, he didn\u2019t leave it there. He also underscored a crude tenet guiding his foreign adventures: \u201cIt\u2019s important to make me happy,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro had failed in that task after shunning a surrender order by Trump \u2014 hence, he was plucked in the dead of night by Delta Force commandos from his Caracas compound, and unceremoniously deposited at New York\u2019s Metropolitan Detention Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet despite the U.S. president\u2019s admonishment about needing to be kept happy \u2014 an exhortation accompanied by teasing hints of possible future raids on the likes of Cuba, Colombia and Mexico \u2014 one continent has stood out in its readiness to defy him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro\u2019s capture has been widely denounced by African governments and the continent\u2019s regional organizations alike. South Africa has been among the most outspoken, with its envoy to the U.N. warning that\u00a0such actions left unpunished risk \u201ca regression\u00a0into a world preceding the United Nations, a world that gave us two brutal world wars, and an international system prone to severe structural instability and lawlessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the African Union, a continent-wide body comprising 54 recognized nations, and the 15-member Economic Community of West African States have categorically condemned Trump\u2019s gunboat diplomacy as well. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni even had the temerity to issue\u00a0a blunt dare to Washington: If American forces attempt the same trick in his country, he bragged, \u201cwe can defeat them\u201d \u2014\u00a0a reversal of his 2018 bromance\u00a0with the U.S. president, when he said he \u201cloves Trump\u201d because of his frankness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa\u2019s forthrightness and unity over Maduro greatly contrasts with the more fractured response from Latin America, as well as the largely hedged responses coming from Europe, which is more focused on Trump\u2019s coveting of Greenland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fearful of risking an open rift with Washington, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer waited 16 hours after Maduro and his wife were seized before gingerly stepping on a diplomatic tightrope, careful to avoid falling one way or the other. While highlighting his preference for observing international law, he said: \u201cWe shed no tears about the end of his regime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others similarly avoided incurring Trump\u2019s anger, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis flatly saying\u00a0now isn\u2019t the right time to discuss Trump\u2019s muscular methods\u00a0\u2014 a position shared by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, why haven\u2019t African leaders danced to the same circumspect European tune?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Partly because they have less to lose. Europe still harbors hope it can influence Trump, soften him and avoid an irreparable breach in the transatlantic alliance, especially when it comes to Greenland, suggested Tighisti Amare of Britain\u2019s Chatham House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith dramatic cuts in U.S. development funds to Africa already implemented by Trump, Washington\u2019s leverage is not as strong as it once was. And the U.S. doesn\u2019t really give much importance to Africa, unless it\u2019s the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], where there are clear U.S. interests on critical minerals,\u201d Amare told POLITICO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn terms of trade volume, the EU remains the most important region for Africa, followed by China, and with the Gulf States increasingly becoming more important,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, Trump hasn\u2019t gone out of his way to make friends in Africa. Quite the reverse \u2014 he\u2019s used the continent as a punching bag, delivering controversial remarks stretching back to his first term, when he described African nations as \u201cshithole countries.\u201d And there have since been rifts galore over travel bans, steep tariffs and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is credited with saving millions of African lives over decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May,\u00a0Trump also lectured South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office\u00a0over what he claimed amounted to genocide against white South Africans, at one point ordering the lights be dimmed to show clips of leaders from a South African minority party encouraging attacks on the country\u2019s white population. Washington then\u00a0boycotted the G20 summit\u00a0hosted by South Africa in November, and\u00a0disinvited the country\u00a0from this year\u2019s gathering, which will be hosted by the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Amare, Africa\u2019s denunciation of Maduro\u2019s abduction doesn\u2019t just display concern about Venezuela; in some part, it\u2019s also fed by the memory of colonialism. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about solidarity, but it\u2019s also about safeguarding the rules that limit how powerful states can use force against more vulnerable states,\u201d she said. African countries see Trump\u2019s move against Maduro \u201cas a genuine threat to international law and norms that protect the survival of the sovereignty of small states.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, African leaders might also be feeling their own collars tighten, and worrying about being in the firing line. \u201cThere\u2019s an element of self-preservation kicking in here because some African leaders share similarities with the Maduro government,\u201d said Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cIn some countries, people on the street and in even civil society have a different take, and actually see the removal of Maduro as a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question is, will African leaders be wary of aligning with either Russian President Vladimir Putin or China\u2019s Xi Jinping, now that Trump has exposed the impotence of friendship with either by deposing the Venezuelan strongman? According to Onubogu, even before Maduro\u2019s ouster, African leaders understood the world order had changed dramatically, and that we\u2019re back in the era of great power competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndividual leaders will make their own specific calculations based on what\u2019s in their favor and their interests. I wouldn\u2019t want to generalize and say some African countries might step back from engaging with China or Russia. They will play the game as they try to figure out how they can come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite the U.S. president\u2019s admonishment about needing to be kept happy, one continent has stood out in its readiness to defy him. While U.S. President Donald Trump brashly cited the Monroe Doctrine to explain the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, he didn\u2019t leave it there. He also underscored a crude tenet guiding his foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-40875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n