No. of Recommendations: 6
Maduro wasn't the lawful head of his government. That one factoid alone takes care of your "rules".
Why? We don't have the right to invade another country to capture a criminal, whether they're a head of state or not. We would be aghast if some other country marched into the U.S. with their military if they wanted to capture one of our domestic criminals that is on the distribution/consumption end of an international drug cartel, and would (correctly) regard that as a gross violation of international law.
The "rules" limit the use of military force to resolving military issues (as a general matter). You can use military force to defend your country from military attacks, or to defend another country from a military attack (Gulf War I). Military force can be sanctioned by international bodies as commensurate with the obligations of territorial integrity under international norms (like the U.N. charter).
But if China says that Lai Ching-te isn't the lawful head of the government of Taiwan, and proceeds to invade the country in order to capture him, the international community would (presumably) not accept that justification and would respond to China the way it would to any other act of naked territorial aggression. Now, though, that gets juuuuuuuust a bit harder...because China can point to our actions in Venezuela as an example of how such a military action can be justified if the person: i) isn't really a head of state; and ii) engaging in crimes that they claim affect their national security (however implausible that claim is).
