UNITED NATIONS, Jan 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for respect for the political independence of states after the United States seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and said it was in charge of the country.
Guterres urges “respect for the principles of sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of states,” according to remarks read on his behalf by Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo during a UN Security Council meeting on 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,” the UN chief’s
remarks said.
Venezuela called for the meeting and Colombia relayed the request to the Security Council, of which it has been a member since Jan 1.
After months of threats and pressure tactics, US forces on Saturday bombed Venezuela and toppled Maduro in a massive operation that brought an end to 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule by the left-wing leader, who had a
$50 million US bounty on his head.
Maduro, in US custody, arrived at a New York court on Monday to face narco trafficking charges, along with his wife Cilia Flores.
Meanwhile, the Americas “do not belong” to any power, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday after US counterpart Donald Trump invoked Washington’s “dominance” of the hemisphere after seizing Venezuela’s leader in a military raid.
Trump described the weekend US military operation against leftist Nicolas Maduro as an update of the Monroe Doctrine: the 1823 declaration by fifth US president James Monroe that Latin America was closed to other powers, which at the time meant Europe.
Sheinbaum hit back Monday, saying: “The Americas do not belong to any doctrine or any power. The American continent belongs to the peoples of each of the countries that comprise it.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Monday he would “take up arms” in the face of threats from US counterpart Donald Trump, who over the weekend seized the leader of neighboring Venezuela in a military strike.
Petro, a former guerrilla who has for months been the target of insults and threats from Trump, said on X: “I swore not to touch a weapon again… but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”
Trump said over the weekend that Petro should “watch his ass” and described Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader as “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” — NNN-AGENCIES