World leaders react to strikes on Venezuela

World lead­ers are re­act­ing with alarm, sup­port and calls for re­straint af­ter US strikes in Venezuela and re­ports of Pres­i­dent Maduro’s cap­ture.

We've round­ed up some of the re­ac­tions so far.

UK says it was not in­volved

The UK was not in­volved “in any way” in the US-led strikes in Venezuela, Prime Min­is­ter Sir Keir Starmer has said, ac­cord­ing to the BBC.

Sir Keir told re­porters he had not yet spo­ken to US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump about the op­er­a­tion in Cara­cas, which re­port­ed­ly tar­get­ed Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

When asked if he con­demned the strikes, Starmer said he first want­ed to “es­tab­lish facts” and dis­cuss the “fast mov­ing sit­u­a­tion” with Trump. He added that the UK gov­ern­ment was co­or­di­nat­ing with its em­bassy in Venezuela to en­sure the safe­ty of around 500 British cit­i­zens, mak­ing sure they are “well looked-af­ter, safe­guard­ed and get ap­pro­pri­ate ad­vice,” the BBC re­port­ed.

Paraguay urges de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion

The gov­ern­ment of Paraguay said it is close­ly mon­i­tor­ing events in Venezuela and called for a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion. In a state­ment is­sued on Jan­u­ary 3, 2026, Paraguay reaf­firmed its his­tor­i­cal com­mit­ment to peace­ful dis­pute res­o­lu­tion but crit­i­cised Maduro as the head of the so-called “Car­tel of the Suns,” for­mal­ly des­ig­nat­ed a ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tion by Paraguayan au­thor­i­ties.

The state­ment said Maduro’s con­tin­ued rule pos­es a threat to the re­gion and called for his re­moval to re­store the rule of law, al­low­ing the pop­u­lar will ex­pressed at the bal­lot box to guide Venezuela’s re­con­struc­tion.

Brazil con­demns US ac­tions

Brazil­ian Pres­i­dent Luiz In­á­cio Lu­la da Sil­va de­scribed the bomb­ings and re­port­ed cap­ture of Maduro as “a most se­ri­ous af­front to Venezuela’s sov­er­eign­ty and yet an­oth­er ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous prece­dent for the en­tire in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.”

Lu­la said such at­tacks vi­o­late in­ter­na­tion­al law and risk pro­mot­ing “a world of vi­o­lence, chaos, and in­sta­bil­i­ty, where the law of the strongest pre­vails over mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism.”

He said the strikes re­called “the worst mo­ments of in­ter­fer­ence in the pol­i­tics of Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean” and threat­ened the re­gion’s sta­tus as a Zone of Peace. Lu­la called on the Unit­ed Na­tions and the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to re­spond and stressed Brazil’s will­ing­ness to pro­mote di­a­logue and co­op­er­a­tion.

Spain calls for de-es­ca­la­tion

The Span­ish Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs said it is close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela in co­or­di­na­tion with the Eu­ro­pean Union and re­gion­al part­ners. The gov­ern­ment con­firmed that staff of Spain’s em­bassy and con­sulate in Cara­cas, along with their fam­i­lies, are safe.

Spain called for de-es­ca­la­tion, mod­er­a­tion, and re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law and the UN Char­ter, sig­nalling its will­ing­ness to of­fer “good of­fices” to help achieve a peace­ful, ne­go­ti­at­ed res­o­lu­tion.

The min­istry re­it­er­at­ed that Spain has not recog­nised the re­sults of Venezuela’s Ju­ly 28, 2024 elec­tions and has con­sis­tent­ly sup­port­ed ef­forts to se­cure a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­lu­tion. It al­so high­light­ed its con­tin­ued sup­port for Venezue­lans who fled the coun­try for po­lit­i­cal rea­sons and said it is pre­pared to as­sist in find­ing a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic and peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to the cri­sis.

Colom­bia urges re­straint, pro­tects bor­der pop­u­la­tion

The Colom­bian gov­ern­ment ex­pressed “deep con­cern” over ex­plo­sions and un­usu­al aer­i­al ac­tiv­i­ty in Venezuela, warn­ing of es­ca­lat­ing re­gion­al ten­sions. It reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to UN prin­ci­ples, in­clud­ing re­spect for sov­er­eign­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty, the pro­hi­bi­tion of the use of force, and the peace­ful set­tle­ment of dis­putes.

Colom­bia re­ject­ed uni­lat­er­al mil­i­tary ac­tion that could put civil­ians at risk and called for de-es­ca­la­tion, urg­ing all par­ties to pri­ori­tise di­a­logue and diplo­mat­ic chan­nels. The gov­ern­ment said it had put mea­sures in place to pro­tect civil­ians, pre­serve sta­bil­i­ty on the Colom­bian-Venezue­lan bor­der, and ad­dress hu­man­i­tar­i­an or mi­gra­to­ry needs in co­or­di­na­tion with lo­cal au­thor­i­ties.

Colom­bia’s For­eign Min­istry said it would main­tain diplo­mat­ic chan­nels with in­volved gov­ern­ments and pro­mote mul­ti­lat­er­al ini­tia­tives to ver­i­fy facts and pre­serve re­gion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty. The coun­try em­pha­sised that peace, re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law, and the pro­tec­tion of life must pre­vail over armed con­fronta­tion.

Chile con­demns US strikes

The gov­ern­ment of Chile ex­pressed con­cern and con­dem­na­tion of the re­port­ed US mil­i­tary ac­tions in Venezuela, call­ing for a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to the cri­sis.

Pres­i­dent Gabriel Boric said Chile re­mains com­mit­ted to in­ter­na­tion­al law, in­clud­ing the pro­hi­bi­tion of the use of force, non-in­ter­ven­tion, the peace­ful set­tle­ment of dis­putes, and re­spect for ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty. He said the Venezue­lan cri­sis “must be re­solved through di­a­logue and the sup­port of mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism, and not through vi­o­lence or for­eign in­ter­fer­ence.”

Uruguay con­demns mil­i­tary in­ter­ven­tion

The gov­ern­ment of Uruguay said it was fol­low­ing the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela with “se­ri­ous con­cern,” crit­i­cis­ing US air at­tacks on mil­i­tary and civil­ian in­fra­struc­ture.

Uruguay reaf­firmed Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean as a zone of peace and free of nu­clear weapons and re­ject­ed uni­lat­er­al mil­i­tary in­ter­ven­tion, stress­ing re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law and the UN Char­ter. The gov­ern­ment con­firmed that con­sular and ad­min­is­tra­tive staff in Cara­cas, as well as Uruguayan na­tion­als, are in good health.

Uruguay called on the Unit­ed Na­tions and the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States to use their good of­fices to find a “pos­i­tive so­lu­tion” to the cri­sis and em­pha­sised that di­a­logue and mul­ti­lat­er­al diplo­ma­cy must pre­vail over force.

Guyana mo­bilis­es forces and mon­i­tors sit­u­a­tion

Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali said his gov­ern­ment has been mon­i­tor­ing events in Venezuela and pri­ori­tis­ing the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of Guyana.

He said the De­fence Board, the lead­er­ship of the Guyana De­fence Force, and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty forces have been ful­ly mo­bilised in ac­cor­dance with se­cu­ri­ty plans. The pres­i­dent added that the gov­ern­ment has been in con­tact with the Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of CARI­COM and promised fur­ther up­dates to the pop­u­la­tion as in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able.

Cu­ba de­nounces US at­tack

The Cuban gov­ern­ment con­demned what it called a “crim­i­nal at­tack by the Unit­ed States on Venezuela” and urged the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to re­spond ur­gent­ly.

Cu­ba de­scribed the strikes as a bru­tal as­sault on the re­gion’s Zone of Peace and an act of state ter­ror­ism against the Venezue­lan peo­ple and Latin Amer­i­ca. The gov­ern­ment called on Cubans to gath­er at Ha­vana’s José Martí An­ti-Im­pe­ri­al­ist Tri­bune to pub­licly de­nounce the US mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion.

Bo­livia sup­ports de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion

Bo­livia ex­pressed strong sup­port for the Venezue­lan peo­ple and called for a re­cov­ery of democ­ra­cy, restora­tion of con­sti­tu­tion­al or­der, and full ex­er­cise of hu­man, civ­il, and po­lit­i­cal rights.

Bo­livia said the cri­sis in Venezuela is the re­sult of the col­lapse of the rule of law and the cap­ture of the state by crim­i­nal struc­tures. The gov­ern­ment said a re­al de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion is now un­avoid­able, one that ends the nar­co-state, dis­man­tles re­pres­sion and cor­rup­tion mech­a­nisms, and re­stores in­sti­tu­tion­al le­git­i­ma­cy in ac­cor­dance with the sov­er­eign will of the Venezue­lan peo­ple.

Bo­livia added it is ready to co­or­di­nate with the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty on hu­man­i­tar­i­an as­sis­tance and pro­tec­tion for civil­ians, en­sur­ing hu­man rights are safe­guard­ed while sup­port­ing a cred­i­ble and ver­i­fi­able in­sti­tu­tion­al re­con­struc­tion process. The gov­ern­ment reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to democ­ra­cy, hu­man rights, and peace in the re­gion and called on oth­er na­tions to act re­spon­si­bly in sup­port of the Venezue­lan peo­ple.

Ecuador backs Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion

Ecuado­ri­an Pres­i­dent Daniel Noboa is­sued a strong­ly word­ed state­ment sup­port­ing Venezuela’s op­po­si­tion and con­demn­ing what he de­scribed as “nar­co chav­ista crim­i­nals.”

In a post on so­cial me­dia, Noboa said the struc­tures sup­port­ing the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment would “com­plete­ly col­lapse across the en­tire con­ti­nent,” sig­nalling Ecuador’s align­ment with ef­forts to dis­man­tle what he char­ac­terised as crim­i­nal net­works.

Ad­dress­ing op­po­si­tion fig­ures María Co­ri­na Macha­do and Ed­mun­do González, as well as the Venezue­lan peo­ple, Noboa said it was “time to re­claim your coun­try” and de­clared that Venezuela “has an al­ly in Ecuador.”

Pana­ma backs de­mo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion

Pana­ma re­it­er­at­ed its sup­port for Venezuela’s de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process and re­spect for the pop­u­lar will ex­pressed at the bal­lot box, ac­cord­ing to a state­ment by José Raúl Muli­no.

The gov­ern­ment said it would con­tin­ue to stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with peace and an “or­der­ly and le­git­i­mate tran­si­tion process,” high­light­ing sup­port for op­po­si­tion leader Ed­mun­do González, who it de­scribed as the coun­try’s de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed choice.