\n<\/p>\n
Denmark and Mexico, also threatened by US President Donald Trump, warn that the US violated international law.<\/em><\/p>\n Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including key US allies, have warned that the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by US special forces could be a precedent-setting event for international law.<\/p>\n The 15-member bloc met for an emergency meeting on Monday in New York City, where the Venezuelan pair were also due to face drug trafficking charges in a US federal court.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n Venezuela\u2019s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, condemned the US operation as \u201can illegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification\u201d, in remarks echoed by Cuba, Colombia and permanent UNSC members Russia and China.<\/p>\n \u201c[The US] imposes the application of its laws outside its own territory and far from its coasts, where it has no jurisdiction, using assaults and the appropriation of assets,\u201d Cuba\u2019s ambassador, Ernesto Soberon Guzman, said, adding that such measures negatively affected Cuba.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the US cannot \u201cproclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge, which alone bears the right to invade any country, to label culprits, to hand down and to enforce punishments irrespective of notions of international law, sovereignty and non-intervention\u201d.<\/p>\n Notable critics at the emergency session included traditional US allies, Mexico and Denmark, both of whom Trump has separately threatened with military action over the past year.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s ambassador, Hector Vasconcelos, said that the council had an \u201cobligation to act decisively and without double standards\u201d towards the US, and it was for \u201csovereign peoples to decide their destinies,\u201d according to a UN readout.<\/p>\n His remarks come just days after Trump told reporters that \u201csomething will have to be done about Mexico\u201d and its drug cartels, following Maduro\u2019s abduction.<\/p>\n Denmark, a longstanding US security ally, said that \u201cno state should seek to influence political outcomes in Venezuela through the use of threat of force or through other means inconsistent with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation,\u201d Denmark\u2019s ambassador, Christina Markus Lassen, told the council in an oblique reference to Trump\u2019s threat that the US would annex Greenland, a self-governed Danish territory.<\/p>\n France, another permanent member of the UNSC, also criticised the US, marking a shift in tone from French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s initial remarks that Venezuelans \u201ccan only rejoice\u201d following Maduro\u2019s abduction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe military operation that has led to the capture of Maduro runs counter to the principle of peaceful dispute resolution and runs counter to the principle of non-use of force,\u201d said the French deputy ambassador, Jay Dharmadhikari.<\/p>\n Representatives from Latvia and the United Kingdom, another permanent UNSC member, focused on the conditions in Venezuela created by Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n Latvia\u2019s ambassador, Sanita Pav\u013cuta-Deslandes, said that Maduro\u2019s conditions in Venezuela posed \u201ca grave threat to the security of the region and the world\u201d, citing mass repression, corruption, organised crime and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n The UK ambassador, James Kariuki, said that \u201cMaduro\u2019s claim to power was fraudulent\u201d.<\/p>\n The US ambassador, Mike Waltz, characterised the abduction of Maduro and his wife as a \u201csurgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the US military against two indicted fugitives of American justice\u201d.<\/p>\n The White House defended its wave of air strikes on Venezuela, and in the waters near it, and Maduro\u2019s abduction as necessary to protect US national security, amid unproven claims that Maduro backed \u201cnarcoterrorist\u201d drug cartels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Denmark and Mexico, also threatened by US President Donald Trump, warn that the US violated international law. Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including key US allies, have warned that the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by US special forces could be a precedent-setting event for international law. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[20361,4659,9402,914,2369,10799,21741,150,10798,1242],"class_list":{"0":"post-40449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-abduction","9":"tag-allies","10":"tag-condemn","11":"tag-council","12":"tag-critics","13":"tag-maduro","14":"tag-maduros","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nicolas","17":"tag-security"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n