VENEZUELA will host an international legal summit next week to discuss the threat the US’s kidnapping of its president poses to “the fundamental pillars of the global legal order.”

First announced by abducted President Nicolas Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra, the summit aims to “bring together jurists, academics, international law experts, and judges from across the globe to carry out an exhaustive and rigorous legal analysis of these events.

“The aim is to contribute a qualified legal opinion that can be submitted to international bodies and to the defence team of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” organisers say.

The conference, entitled The rule of law: the case of Venezuela, will take place on February 10 and 11. It slams the US operation of January 3 — in which over 100 people were killed as special forces raided Caracas, abducted President Maduro and his wife at gunpoint and spirited them back to the United States — as “flagrant violations of cardinal principles of international law, including the prohibition of the use of force and intervention in the internal affairs of states; the absolute jurisdictional immunity of sitting heads of state… and the fundamental norms of due process and protection against arbitrary detention.”

Working groups will assess “international law at a crossroads: a system of rules or power?” the added complexities of the US deciding to abduct and charge the leader of a foreign state under its domestic law, and “reaction mechanisms and conclusions.”

Participants will then agree an Action Plan to work for President Maduro’s release.