{"id":394092,"date":"2026-01-05T23:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394092\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:11:06","slug":"us-foes-and-allies-denounce-trumps-crime-of-aggression-in-venezuela-at-un-meeting-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394092\/","title":{"rendered":"US foes and allies denounce Trump\u2019s \u2018crime of aggression\u2019 in Venezuela at UN meeting | Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US has faced widespread condemnation for a \u201ccrime of aggression\u201d in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of the United Nations<\/a> security council.<\/p>\n

Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among countries that on Monday denounced Donald Trump\u2019s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch its leader<\/a>, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to stand trial in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,\u201d S\u00e9rgio Fran\u00e7a Danese, the Brazilian ambassador to the UN, told the meeting. \u201cThese acts constitute a very serious affront to the sovereignty of Venezuela<\/a> and set an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate \u201claw enforcement\u201d action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an \u201cillegitimate\u201d leader, not an act of war.<\/p>\n

The meeting in New York was convened just hours before Maduro was due to appear before a federal judge in Manhattan on charges including \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy, cocaine importation and weapons trafficking <\/a>\u2013 allegations he has long denied.<\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that the capture of Maduro risked intensifying instability in Venezuela and across the region. He questioned whether the operation respected the rules of international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted,\u201d Guterres said in a statement delivered to the council by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo.<\/p>\n

He urged Venezuelan actors to engage in \u201cinclusive and democratic dialogue\u201d and offered UN support for a peaceful way forward.<\/p>\n

The meeting had been requested by Colombia, which delivered a carefully calibrated rebuke of Washington. The country\u2019s ambassador, Leonor Zalabata Torres, condemned the US action as a violation of Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for the unilateral use of force to commit an act of aggression.\u201d She added that the raid was reminiscent of \u201cthe worst interference in our area in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia and China, both permanent security council members, were less restrained and called on the US to immediately release Maduro and Flores. Vasily Nebenzya, Moscow\u2019s ambassador, described the intervention as \u201ca turn back to the era of lawlessness\u201d and urged the 15-member council to reject the methods of US military foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Nebenzya, whose country is currently under US sanctions following its illegal invasion of Ukraine, added: \u201cWe cannot allow the United States to proclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge, which alone bears the right to invade any country, to label culprits, to hand down and to enforce punishments irrespective of notions of international law, sovereignty and nonintervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s representative, Fu Cong, echoed the charge, saying the US had \u201cwantonly trampled upon Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty\u201d and violated the principle of sovereign equality. \u201cNo country can act as the world\u2019s police.\u201d<\/p>\n

China demanded that the US \u201cchange its course, cease its bullying and coercive practices\u201d, and \u201creturn to the path of political solutions through dialogue and negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Cuban ambassador, Ernesto Sober\u00f3n Guzm\u00e1n, told the meeting: \u201cThe US military attack against Venezuela has no justification whatsoever\u2026 This is an imperialist and fascist aggression with objectives of domination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The security council meeting also heard from Venezuela\u2019s ambassador Samuel Moncada, who described the US action as an \u201cillegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification\u201d that included \u201cthe kidnapping of the constitutional president of the republic, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros and the first lady Cilia Flores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moncada added: \u201cNo state can set itself up as a judge, party and executor of the world order \u2026 Venezuela is the victim of this attack because of its natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its part, the US insisted that there was \u201cno war against Venezuela or its people\u201d. Waltz told the council the operation was a law-enforcement action carried out in pursuit of long-standing indictments. \u201cWe are not occupying a country; this was a law enforcement operation,\u201d he said, invoking the 1989 capture of Panama\u2019s former leader Manuel Noriega as precedent.<\/p>\n

Waltz cited Article 51 of the UN charter, which enshrines the right to self-defence, and said the evidence against Maduro would be presented openly in US court. He described the Venezuelan leader as \u201can illegitimate so-called president\u201d and claimed that millions of Venezuelans, including exiles in Florida, were celebrating his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reiterate President Trump gave diplomacy a chance. He offered Maduro multiple offerings he tried to de-escalate. Maduro refused to take them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts, however, have questioned the legality of the operation, noting that it lacked UN security council authorisation<\/a>, Venezuelan consent and a clear self-defence rationale. The UN charter obliges states to refrain from the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of others \u2013 a principle repeatedly invoked during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Yet the council, paralysed by divisions among its most powerful members, appeared no closer to a collective response. Any attempt to censure the US is certain to be blocked by its veto, one of five held by the council\u2019s permanent members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has faced widespread condemnation for a \u201ccrime of aggression\u201d in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-394092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}