U.N. Security Council criticizes U.S. raid that captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro

At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, some U.S. allies criticized the U.S. military raid that captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, two days after the operation brought him before a federal judge in Manhattan. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the Trump administration had violated the U.N.

charter with the nighttime raid in Caracas, which used roughly 200 members of U.S. special forces to take Mr. Maduro and his wife into custody. Member nations of the Security Council described the raid as a violation of international law, and representatives from Russia and China demanded the couple’s release.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz defended the operation as “a law enforcement operation,” calling Mr. Maduro a narcotics fugitive and saying there was “no war against Venezuela or its people.” Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty at a Manhattan arraignment, and Mr. Maduro said he remained Venezuela’s president and had been “kidnapped.” The arraignment followed a monthslong U.S.

campaign to drive Mr. Maduro from power; his lawyer, Barry Pollack, raised questions about the legality of what he called a “military abduction,” and officials said it could be well over a year before the couple face trial. In Caracas, Delcy Rodríguez, Mr. Maduro’s vice president before the raid, was sworn in as interim leader and denounced what she called the “illegitimate military aggression” of the United States, calling Mr.

Key Topics

World, Nicolas Maduro, U.s. Raid, U.n. Security Council, Delcy Rodriguez, Cilia Flores