U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday of growing instability in Venezuela following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro, as Washington said it has no plans to occupy the country.
The 15-member Security Council met at U.N. headquarters in New York just hours before Maduro was appeared in a Manhattan federal court on drug charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied any criminal involvement.
"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," Guterres said in a statement delivered to the council by U.N. political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the Security Council the United States carried out "a surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the U.S. military against two indicted fugitives of American justice," referring to Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
"As Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio has said, there is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country," said Waltz, as he laid out the U.S. case against Maduro at the Security Council.
