UN Security Council members slam US abduction of Venezuela’s Maduro
Members of the United Nations Security Council, including allies of the United States, have condemned Washington’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The UN Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss the US raid on Venezuela and Maduro’s abduction.
The American and Venezuelan ambassadors traded barbs, while the secretary-general voiced concern about the country’s immediate future, according to Al Jazeera.
Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among countries that have denounced the weekend US attack in Venezuela.
António 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.
“I 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,” he said.
“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line … and set an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community,” Sérgio França Danese, the Brazilian ambassador to the UN, told the meeting on Monday.
Donald Trump’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war.
