UN Sec-Gen: Potential for worse instability in Venezuela after U.S. military action

Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Unit­ed Na­tions, An­to­nio Guter­res, is warn­ing of the po­ten­tial for in­creased in­sta­bil­i­ty in Venezuela, fol­low­ing the Unit­ed States ac­tions on Sat­ur­day, which saw the coun­try’s pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro be­ing cap­tured and tak­en to the U.S. to face drug traf­fick­ing and oth­er charges in an Amer­i­can court.

In a state­ment de­liv­ered to the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil ear­li­er to­day, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Guter­res said he was “deeply con­cerned” by these de­vel­op­ments.

“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 stat­ed.

He not­ed that the ac­tions of the Unit­ed States have dealt a se­ri­ous blow to re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law norms.

“I re­main deeply con­cerned that rules of in­ter­na­tion­al law have not been re­spect­ed with re­gard to the 3 Jan­u­ary mil­i­tary ac­tion,” he said.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment he made to­day, to the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil…

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THE SEC­RE­TARY-GEN­ER­AL

RE­MARKS TO THE SE­CU­RI­TY COUN­CIL ON VENEZUELA

New York, 5 Jan­u­ary 2025

Mr. Pres­i­dent, Mem­bers of the Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil,

We meet at a grave time fol­low­ing the 3 Jan­u­ary Unit­ed States mil­i­tary ac­tion in the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela.

The broad out­lines of the events of Sat­ur­day have been wide­ly re­port­ed.

Ear­ly that day, US forces were ac­tive across Cara­cas and in the north­ern states of Mi­ran­da, Aragua, and La Guaira.

The ex­tent of ca­su­al­ties re­sult­ing from these ac­tions re­mains un­de­ter­mined.

In a state­ment on so­cial me­dia on Sat­ur­day, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump an­nounced the con­duct of a “large scale strike against Venezuela, and its leader, Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro”.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day, Pres­i­dent Trump stat­ed: “We are go­ing to run the coun­try un­til such time that we can do a safe, prop­er and ju­di­cious tran­si­tion”.

The Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela has char­ac­ter­ized the Unit­ed States ac­tion as a mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion car­ried out in civil­ian and mil­i­tary ar­eas, and as a fla­grant vi­o­la­tion of the Char­ter, pos­ing a threat to in­ter­na­tion­al and re­gion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty.

As we speak, Pres­i­dent Maduro is be­ing held in New York ac­cused by US au­thor­i­ties, along with his wife Cil­ia Flo­res, of se­ri­ous crim­i­nal of­fens­es.

What is less cer­tain is the im­me­di­ate fu­ture of Venezuela.

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.

Mr Pres­i­dent,

The sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela has been a mat­ter of re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al con­cern for many years now.

At­ten­tion on the coun­try on­ly grew fol­low­ing the con­test­ed pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in Ju­ly 2024.

The pan­el of elec­toral ex­perts I ap­point­ed at the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment’s re­quest to ac­com­pa­ny the elec­tions high­light­ed se­ri­ous is­sues.

We have con­sis­tent­ly called for full trans­paren­cy and the com­plete pub­li­ca­tion of the re­sults of the elec­tions.

As we re­port­ed to the Coun­cil on 23 De­cem­ber, the Of­fice of the High Com­mis­sion­er for Hu­man Rights has cat­a­logued se­ri­ous vi­o­la­tions.

On 3 Jan­u­ary, Venezue­lan in­ter­im Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez in­voked an emer­gency de­cree through­out the na­tion­al ter­ri­to­ry ex­tend­ing ad­di­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty pow­ers to the gov­ern­ment.

Mr. Pres­i­dent,

The lat­est de­vel­op­ments fol­low a pe­ri­od of height­ened ten­sions, be­gin­ning in mid-Au­gust, as dis­cussed in this Coun­cil on two pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sions.

I have con­sis­tent­ly stressed the im­per­a­tive of full re­spect, by all, for in­ter­na­tion­al law, in­clud­ing the Char­ter of the Unit­ed Na­tions, which pro­vides the foun­da­tion for the main­te­nance of in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty.

I re­main deeply con­cerned that rules of in­ter­na­tion­al law have not been re­spect­ed with re­gard to the 3 Jan­u­ary mil­i­tary ac­tion.

The Char­ter en­shrines the pro­hi­bi­tion of the threat or use of force against the ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty or po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence of any state.

The main­te­nance of in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty de­pends on the con­tin­ued com­mit­ment of all Mem­ber States to ad­here to all the pro­vi­sions of the Char­ter.

Mr. Pres­i­dent,

Venezuela has ex­pe­ri­enced decades of in­ter­nal in­sta­bil­i­ty and so­cial and eco­nom­ic tur­moil. Democ­ra­cy has been un­der­mined. Mil­lions of its peo­ple have fled the coun­try.

The sit­u­a­tion is crit­i­cal, but it is still pos­si­ble to pre­vent a wider and more de­struc­tive con­fla­gra­tion.

I call on all Venezue­lan ac­tors to en­gage in an in­clu­sive, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic di­a­logue in which all sec­tors of so­ci­ety can de­ter­mine their fu­ture.

This en­tails the full re­spect of hu­man rights, the rule of law and the sov­er­eign will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple.

I al­so urge Venezuela’s neigh­bours, and the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty more broad­ly, to act in a spir­it of sol­i­dar­i­ty and in ad­her­ence to the prin­ci­ples, laws and rules erect­ed to pro­mote peace­ful co­ex­is­tence.

I wel­come and am ready to sup­port all ef­forts aimed at as­sist­ing Venezue­lans in find­ing a peace­ful way for­ward.

Mr. Pres­i­dent, Ex­cel­len­cies,

In sit­u­a­tions as con­fused and com­plex as the one we now face, it is im­por­tant to stick to prin­ci­ples.

Re­spect for the UN Char­ter and all oth­er ap­plic­a­ble le­gal frame­works to safe­guard peace and se­cu­ri­ty.

Re­spect for the prin­ci­ples of sov­er­eign­ty, po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence and ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty of states.

The pro­hi­bi­tion of the threat or use of force.

The pow­er of the law must pre­vail.

In­ter­na­tion­al law con­tains tools to ad­dress is­sues such as il­lic­it traf­fic in nar­cotics, dis­putes about re­sources and hu­man rights con­cerns.

This is the route we need to take.

Thank you.