It was inevitable that the US arrest of Nicholas Maduro would raise cries that it was a breach of international law. But while there might be a creature we call international law, I don't think it is "law" in any real sense of the word.

First, it lacks democratic legitimacy. Instead of law it is really a series of conventions agreed upon by countries. Most of these countries are not democracies, and the vast majority of the people in those countries do not live in democracies. Even when they do, the EU shows how badly this can go wrong with laws effectively being written by unelected bureaucrats.

Second, for a law to be effective it needs to be backed by force. While countries have laws that are backed by force, although in the case of some countries so weakly as to make them effectively lawless, there is no international mechanism to back international law with force.

By persisting with the illusion of international law we are applying a rules-based system to one which is force-based, and that blinds us to what is ultimately right or wrong. In a force-based system, breaking the international laws, decided abstractly by bureaucrats with no skin in the game, will often be the most sensible, and moral, thing to do.

(translated from the original Spanish) ...

"If international law can't prevent me from being tortured in a cell at the Helicoide, but it does protect Maduro so he can torture me in the Helicoide, international law does nothing for me, but its f$$king me over".

During the Melian Debate the Athenians opined that "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” The 'invention' of international law was an attempt to restrain the strong and protect the weak. But instead it became a tool to protect the tyrant and impede any and all efforts to protect the people.

Yes. It has always been hogwash. It is unenforceable.

Just ask China, habitual defaulter of the "law".

International law has no 'super power' to enforce it.
So it relies on good men doing what is right.
But they can only do so much.
That being so, many breaches of international law can take place.
Some transgressions could well be justified though.
In the the case of Venezuela, surely the actions of those in power there led to extreme provocation?
To such an extent that the USA was obliged to act?
Are the USA right when they said they could not allow the situation to continue?
Are they justified in their apparently unlawful action?
Is this an exceptional case where law must be relaxed?
In order that USA citizens can be protected?
One must also ask: is this action likely to be successful?

Well what Trump did was in breach of the UN charter, breach of International Law and breach of the constitution.

If it's now legal to use domestic law enforcement to invade foreign nations, than every nation in the world can invade any other to arrest their leader on trumped up domestic charges.

Why would any nation trust the Trump administration in league with Netanyahu?

How many times have they used negotiations for sneak attacks?

Before major airstrikes by Israel and the United States in June, Iran and the U.S. were engaged in a series of nuclear negotiations aimed at easing sanctions in exchange for curbing Iran's nuclear program.

They were to have negotiations with Russia in Istanbul and then launched an attack on Russia's strategic nuclear bombers.

They tried to assassinate Hamas in Qatar during negotiations.

What about Vladimir Putin, Trump told him to stay put while they were having phone discussions and that he'd call him back, then there was 91 drones targeted at his location.

(And Russia turned over the flight data from captured drones, they know everything - the drone strikes were co-ordinated using U.S. targeting data, and Russia is now going to take the gloves off and get serious payback for this)

What about Solemani?
They lured him into Iraq for peace negotiations, then Trump assassinated him with an airstrike.

They did the same with Hezbollah and Nasrallah in Lebanon, lured them to negotiations.

There's no diplomacy.

All’s fair in love and war !