Venezuela Urges UN Solidarity Against US “Military Threat”

Venezuela on Friday appealed to the United Nations for global solidarity against what it described as a looming “military threat” from the United States, which has recently carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean.

“As they can’t accuse Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons, they’re inventing vulgar and perverse lies that nobody believes — not in the United States, nor around the world — to justify an atrocious, extravagant and immoral multi-billion-dollar military threat,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto told the UN General Assembly.

He thanked governments and citizens worldwide, “including in the United States,” for condemning Washington’s actions, which Caracas says amount to preparations for war.

President Donald Trump has deployed eight warships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the southern Caribbean as part of a stated anti-drug operation. US forces have destroyed at least three suspected narcotics boats in recent weeks, killing more than a dozen people — actions UN experts have denounced as “extrajudicial executions.”

The United States continues to reject calls for dialogue from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington does not recognize due to alleged electoral irregularities. Maduro, once a regular figure at the UN alongside his predecessor Hugo Chávez, skipped this year’s General Assembly. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed him as “a fugitive from justice,” citing a US indictment linking Maduro to drug trafficking.