Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron, on Monday criticized the 'method' used by the United States to arrest Venezuelan president Nicol¡s Maduro two days earlier. This is 'neither supported nor approved' by France, Macron said during a Cabinet meeting in Paris, said government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon.
According to Ghana News Agency, the spokeswoman did not specify whether Macron was criticizing the US attack as such, or only the manner in which Maduro was detained. 'We defend international law and the freedom of peoples,' the president said, according to Bregeon.
Macron's comments follow irritation in France at his initial reaction to the US attack on Venezuela, which culminated in the seizure of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and their transportation to New York. With no criticism of the US action, Macron said on Saturday that the Venezuelan people could rejoice at being freed from dictatorship. Maduro had seriously violated the dignity of his own people, Macron wrote on X.
Initially, criticism of the US action came only from French Foreign Minister, Jean-No«l Barrot. 'The military operation that led to the arrest of Nicol¡s Maduro, violates the principle of non-use of force on which international law is based,' Barrot said after news of the US operation broke. 'France recalls that no lasting political solution can be imposed from outside, and sovereign peoples alone decide their future.'
The different perspectives of the president and the foreign minister on the events in Venezuela, caused surprise in France. However, the minister's statement had been coordinated with the president, Bregeon said.