‘War is back in vogue,’ Pope Leo says

AFP | Vatican

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City Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that war was “back in vogue” and highlighted the “ambition of belligerents”, as his own country the United States flexes its military muscles.

In a New Year’s message to diplomats at the Vatican, his first since becoming head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics last May, Leo lamented the weakness of multilateralism, saying dialogue was being replaced by a “diplomacy based on force”.

He did not name the US but said rising tensions in the Caribbean and Pacific were “cause for serious concern”, particularly in Venezuela -- where US forces recently seized the president.

He was speaking just hours after US President Donald Trump said land operations against drug cartels were on the way following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Leo issued an appeal “to respect the will of the Venezuelan people, and to safeguard the human and civil rights of all”, following Trump’s suggestion the US could effectively control Venezuela -- and its vast oil reserves -- for years.

The pope’s address rounded up a year of increasing global tension, from the Russia-Ukraine war to US strikes in several countries, and rising fears in Europe of a possible US takeover of Greenland.