Kemi Badenoch backs the United States action in Venezuela, citing childhood under military rule

Kemi Badenoch, a UK Conservatives leader, has said the United States military action that removed Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela was morally right, even if its legal basis remains contested.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Badenoch described the operation as extraordinary but said she understood why Washington acted, portraying Venezuela under Maduro as a gangster state.
“Where the legal certainty is not yet clear, morally, I do think it was the right thing to do,” she said. “I grew up under a military dictatorship, so I know what it’s like to have someone like Maduro in charge.”

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Badenoch said her view was shaped by her early life in Nigeria, where she spent much of her childhood after being born in the United Kingdom in 1980. She returned to Britain at the age of 16 in 1996, after years marked by political instability and military rule in Nigeria.

During that period, Shehu Shagari served as a civilian president from 1980 to 1983, before a succession of military leaders took power. Muhammadu Buhari ruled from 1983 to 1985, followed by Ibrahim Babangida from 1985 to 1993, and then Sani Abacha, whose rule lasted from 1993 until he died in 1998.

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Badenoch suggested that living through those years gave her a clear understanding of what authoritarian rule looks like in practice, and why outside intervention can sometimes be justified.

Maduro and his wife are currently in New York, where they have been charged with weapons and drug offences. United States prosecutors accuse the former Venezuelan leader of enriching himself through a violent criminal network involved in smuggling cocaine into the US.

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Maduro had been sworn in last January for a third six-year term following elections that were widely disputed and rejected by much of the international community.

The US operation has sparked intense global debate over sovereignty, international law, and the limits of military intervention.