US allies join foes in UN rebuke of Venezuela military operation

The United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session Monday as countries ranging from traditional U.S. allies to long-standing rivals condemned the Jan. 3 American military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York to face federal narco-terrorism charges. Maduro declared his innocence during his first appearance in a Manhattan federal courthouse the same day.

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council convened an emergency session Monday as both allies and adversaries of the United States condemned the Jan. 3 American military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York to face federal narco-terrorism charges. Maduro declared his innocence during his first appearance in a Manhattan federal courthouse later the same day.

The breadth of international opposition — spanning NATO partners in Europe to adversaries China and Russia — underscored the diplomatic stakes of an action the Trump administration defended as a justified law enforcement measure.

Allied governments voice concern

Denmark’s UN Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen delivered one of the sharper rebukes from within the U.S. alliance network, saying “the inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation.” She also defended Venezuela’s sovereignty, stating “no state should seek to influence political outcomes in Venezuela through the use of threat of force or through other means inconsistent with international law.”

France’s position illustrated the division between government and diplomatic registers. While President Emmanuel Macron had recently endorsed Maduro’s capture, France’s deputy UN ambassador, Jay Dharmadhikari, was more measured at the Security Council. He warned that violations of international law by the five permanent council members — which include the United States — erode “the very foundation of the international order.”

“The military operation that has led to the capture of Maduro runs counter to the principle of peace dispute resolution and runs counter to the principle of non-use of force,” Dharmadhikari said.

Colombia, a neighboring country with historically close ties to Venezuela’s political opposition, described the raid as reminiscent of “the worst interference in our area in the past.”

“Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” said Ambassador Leonor Zalabata.

U.S. defends the operation

U.S. UN Envoy Mike Waltz, who previously served as Trump’s national security adviser, defended the operation before the council as a “surgical law enforcement operation” and challenged the body over its willingness to extend legitimacy to Maduro.

“If the United Nations in this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist with the same treatment in this charter of a democratically elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?” Waltz said.

Maduro’s 2024 reelection was widely disputed.

UN chief and adversaries warn of precedent

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a written statement saying he is “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action.” He described the action as “grave” and warned it could set a precedent for future relations between nations.

China and Russia, both permanent Security Council members and long-standing critics of U.S. foreign policy, called on the council to reject what they characterized as a return to an “era of lawlessness.”

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said: “We 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.”

Nebenzia’s own country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has drawn broad condemnation within the UN and from the United States, though the Trump administration is currently engaged with Russia in an effort to broker an end to that conflict.

Venezuela demands Maduro’s release

Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada urged the Security Council to go beyond what he called veiled comments and demand that Washington release Maduro and his wife.

“If the kidnapping of a head of state, the bombing of a sovereign country and the open threat of further armed action are tolerated or downplayed, the message sent to the world is a devastating one: namely that the law is optional, and that force is the true arbiter of international relations,” Moncada said.

Operation’s details and next steps

U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife early Saturday from their home on a Venezuelan military base and placed them aboard a U.S. warship bound for New York, where a Justice Department indictment charges them with participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

President Donald Trump has asserted that the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a narrower characterization, saying the U.S. would enforce an oil quarantine already in place on sanctioned tankers and use that leverage to press policy changes in Venezuela.