The United States was condemned at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday for what even its staunch allies called a violation of international law in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and the military incursion into a sovereign state.
The deputy French ambassador denounced the assault and Mr. Maduro’s apprehension, saying it “chips away at the very foundation of international order.”
The U.N.’s top official, Secretary General António Guterres, said the Trump administration had violated the U.N. charter.
Colombia’s ambassador said it was reminiscent of bygone eras of American interference in the region and that the United States was undermining “international peace and security.”
Russia and China demanded the release of Mr. Maduro and his wife, and called for a halt to any further military action by the United States.
Mr. Guterres said in a statement read at the meeting: “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 called for a return to diplomatic dialogue and respect for international rules.
Monday’s meeting was the second time that the Security Council had convened a session recently to discuss actions that the United States, a permanent member, has taken regarding Venezuela that other nations said threatened the stability and security of world order. In October the Council held a rare meeting on the deadly U.S. strikes on Venezuelan boats that it alleged carried drugs bound for the United States.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. defended his country’s ouster of Mr. Maduro, saying Monday that there was “no war against Venezuela or its people” and called Mr. Maduro a narcotics fugitive not a head of state.
“We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation,” the ambassador, Mike Waltz, said during the council’s emergency meeting. He argued that the capture of Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on drug charges made Latin America safer.
The Council’s meeting at the headquarters of the U.N. in midtown Manhattan took place at the same time that Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being arraigned at a federal court just three miles away, in Lower Manhattan. They both pleaded not guilty to the charges. Mr. Maduro told a judge he had been “kidnapped” in the U.S. military raid on Caracas on Saturday.
France’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Jay Dharmadhikari, criticized Mr. Maduro’s rule, but said the operation undermined international rules and norms, and added that Venezuelans themselves must determine their political fate.
“The military operation which has led to the capture of Nicholas Maduro runs counter to the principle of peaceful dispute resolution and runs counter to the principle of non-use of force,” he said. He said the fact that a permanent member of the Council would disregard international law and the U.N. charter, “chips away at the very foundation of the international order.”
Latin American countries also raised the alarm. In addition to the 15 members of the Council and Venezuela, nearly a dozen other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua and Iran, had requested to participate in the meeting and address the Council.
“Where are the foundations of international peace and security?” asked Colombia’s U.N. ambassador, Zalabata Torres. “It reminds us of the worst interference in our area, in our zone of peace.”
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., said. “the American global gendarme is attempting to rear its head once again,” and asked the international community to unite and reject the “measures and tools of US military foreign policy.
President Trump suggested on Sunday that the United States could take action against other countries, including Colombia, Mexico and the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland. Asked whether that could mean a U.S. operation against Colombia, he said, “It sounds good to me.”
The Security Council chamber and its semicircular seating arrangement often brings face-to-face diplomats from countries engaged in hostilities against one another in real time, from Russia and Ukraine to Israel and Iran, and on Monday, the ambassadors of Venezuela and the United States.
Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, Samuel Moncada, sat somber-faced throughout the meeting. He told the Council that the U.S. operation in Caracas opened the door to other countries taking similar action.
“If the kidnapping of a head of state and bombing are tolerated or downplayed, the message sent to the world is a devastating one, mainly that the law is optional and force is the true arbiter of international order,” said Mr. Moncada.
Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization. She also covers Iran and has written about conflict in the Middle East for 15 years.
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