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Venezuela’s UN ambassador denounces US military strikes and naval blockade at UN Security Council meeting.
Venezuela has told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the United States has “continental ambitions” over much of Latin America. waging an unofficial war to overthrow the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“It’s not just about Venezuela. The ambition is continental,” Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Samuel Moncada, told a meeting of the 15 members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
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“The US government has expressed this in its national security strategy, which states that the future of the continent belongs to them,” Moncada said.
“We want to alert the world that Venezuela is only the first target of a larger plan. The American government wants us to be divided so that they can conquer us little by little,” he said.
Earlier this month, Venezuela demanded that the U.N. Security Council meet to respond to “ongoing U.S. aggression,” which began in September when the White House launched airstrikes against ships in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The White House claimed, without providing any evidence, that the ships were smuggling drugs to the United States.
At least 105 people have been killed so far in attacks by U.S. forces, which legal experts and Latin American leaders have called “extrajudicial killings” but which Washington says are necessary to stem the flow of drugs to U.S. shores.
At the UN Security Council meeting, Moncada also accused US President Donald Trump’s administration of violating both international law and US domestic law, since the White House is acting without the approval of the US Congress, whose authority is required to formally declare war on another country.
Moncada said Trump’s imposition last week of a U.S.-sanctioned naval blockade on all Venezuelan oil tankers was a “military act aimed at besieging the Venezuelan nation.”
“Today the masks have fallen,” Moncada said. “It’s not drugs, it’s not security, it’s not freedom. It’s oil, it’s mines and it’s land.”
The American envoy denounces “Maduro and his illegitimate regime”
U.S. forces seized at least two Venezuelan oil tankers and confiscated at least 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, according to Moncada, in a move he called “theft committed by military force.”
The United States has defended its naval blockade of Venezuela as a “law and order” measure to be carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, which has the authority to board vessels subject to U.S. sanctions. On the other hand, a naval blockade would be considered an act of war under international law.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the Security Council that Latin American drug cartels remain the “most serious threat” and that Trump will continue to use the full power of the United States to root them out. Waltz also said that Venezuelan oil is a vital part of financing cartels in Venezuela.
“The reality of the situation is that the sanctioned oil tankers constitute the main economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime,” he said.
The White House earlier this year designated several international drug cartels, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as terrorist organizations. Washington also added to the list in November the “Cartel de los Soles,” which it claims is led by Maduro.
The Venezuelan leader has denied the U.S. allegations and accused the Trump administration of using drug trafficking allegations as a cover to carry out “regime change” in his country.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN separately warned that the US “intervention” in Venezuela could “become a model for future acts of force against Latin American states.”
China’s ambassador told the U.N. Security Council that U.S. actions “severely undermine” Venezuela’s “sovereignty, security and legitimate rights.”
