The emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday drew criticism and defense of a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolás Maduro, with allies and adversaries of the United States both using the session to argue over international law.
Countries on Monday critiqued—sometimes without naming the United States directly—what they said was President Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela. The criticism also followed Trump’s comments signaling the possibility of expanding military action to countries including Colombia and Mexico amid drug trafficking accusations, and his renewed threat to take over the Danish territory of Greenland for U.S. security interests.
Denmark, which has jurisdiction over Greenland’s mineral-rich territory, denounced the prospect of U.S. control without mentioning its NATO ally by name. Christina Markus Lassen, Denmark’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “The inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation.” She also defended Venezuela’s sovereignty, saying, “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.”
Some U.S. allies questioned the legality of the operation, arguing that the five permanent Security Council members—including the United States—risk eroding the “very foundation of the international order” if international law is violated. Jay Dharmadhikari, the deputy French ambassador to the United Nations, said, “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.”
The U.S. position came from Mike Waltz, Trump’s former national security adviser. Waltz defended the Venezuela operation as a justified “surgical law enforcement operation,” and he questioned why the council was criticizing the targeting of 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.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement ahead of the meeting, said he was “deeply concerned” that rules of international law had not been respected with regard to the “3 January” military action. Guterres said the “grave” action by the United States could set a precedent for how future relations between nations unfold.
Venezuela’s envoy Samuel Moncada pressed for a Security Council response beyond the meeting’s “veiled comments,” urging the council to demand that Washington release Maduro and his wife. Moncada warned that tolerating the operation would signal that “the law is optional” and that “force is the true arbiter of international relations.” He also warned that the approach could destabilize the world, saying, “Accepting such a logic would mean to open the door to a deeply unstable world.”
Colombia’s ambassador described the U.S. raid as reminiscent of “the worst interference in our area in the past.” Leonor Zalabata said, “Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests.”
China and Russia—both permanent Security Council members that have been among the most critical of U.S. foreign policy—also urged the council to reject what they described as a shift toward an “era of lawlessness.” Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador, said the United States should not be allowed to portray itself as a supreme judge with the right to invade countries and enforce punishments without regard for international law, sovereignty, and nonintervention.
The dispute unfolded after the U.S. seized Maduro and his wife early Saturday from their home on a military base and put them aboard a U.S. warship. They were to face prosecution in New York based on a Justice Department indictment alleging they participated in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro declared his innocence during his first appearance in a Manhattan courthouse on Monday.
The episode came after months of the U.S. amassing a military presence off Venezuela’s coast and responding against alleged drug trafficking boats. Trump has said the U.S. would run Venezuela temporarily and tap the country’s oil reserves, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would enforce an oil quarantine already in place on sanctioned tankers and use that leverage to press policy changes in Venezuela.