The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting this Tuesday (23) regarding pressure from the United States on Venezuela, and the ambassadors of the two countries to the United Nations exchanged accusations.
The meeting in New York was requested by the Chavista regime, due to the Donald Trump administration’s blockade of sanctioned oil tankers arriving in Venezuela or leaving the South American country and the American military operation against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean that Washington says are linked to drug trafficking.
“The United States will impose and enforce sanctions to the maximum extent permissible to deprive [o ditador Nicolás] Maduro of the resources he uses to finance the Los Soles Cartel, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, along with the Tren de Aragua. Importantly for this Security Council meeting today, this includes the profits from the sale of oil used to finance these cartels,” said Ambassador Mike Waltz, American representative to the UN, according to information from international agencies.
“Maduro’s ability to sell Venezuelan oil enables his fraudulent claim to power and his narco-terrorist activities. The people of Venezuela, frankly, deserve better. These people who suffered under Maduro’s socialist dictatorship,” he added, remembering that Washington does not recognize the Chavista regime.
Archie Young, ambassador of the United Kingdom, one of the five countries with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (alongside the USA, Russia, China and France), recalled the 2024 electoral fraud that kept Maduro in power and human rights violations in Venezuela, but did not express support for American actions in the region.
“We will continue to work to achieve a peaceful, negotiated transition in Venezuela that ensures the will of all Venezuelans is respected,” Young said.
Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, told the meeting that the country was being subjected to the “biggest extortion” in its history.
“We are facing a power that acts outside of international law, demanding that Venezuelans abandon our country and hand it over,” he accused.
The envoy of Russia (Maduro’s ally) to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the US blockade of sanctioned oil tankers from Venezuela is “illegal” and an “act of aggression” and that the American action could “become a model for future acts of force against Latin American states”.
