UN Condemns US Operation in Venezuela, Says Action Violated International Law

The United Nations has expressed serious concern over the recent United States operation in Venezuela, warning that the action undermined a fundamental principle of international law.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said states are prohibited from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another country.

Her remarks followed the early-morning operation on Saturday in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were forcibly removed from their residence by US commandos during coordinated airstrikes on Caracas, supported by warplanes and a substantial naval presence.

Shamdasani rejected Washington’s justification that the operation was necessitated by what it described as Venezuela’s long-standing and severe human rights abuses.

She stressed that accountability for human rights violations cannot be pursued through unilateral military action that contravenes international law.

The UN official noted that the human rights office has, for more than a decade, consistently documented the steady deterioration of conditions in Venezuela.

She warned that the current instability and increased militarisation triggered by the US intervention risk further worsening the humanitarian and human rights situation in the country.