{"id":1140846,"date":"2026-01-03T23:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.app.com.pk\/?p=1140846"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:53:17","slug":"un-chief-warns-us-actions-in-venezuela-set-dangerous-precedent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/un-chief-warns-us-actions-in-venezuela-set-dangerous-precedent\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Chief warns US actions in Venezuela set &#8216;dangerous precedent&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">UNITED NATIONS, Jan 03 (APP):UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is \u201cdeeply alarmed\u201d over the standoff between the United States and Venezuela in recent months, which culminated on Saturday morning in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe Secretary-General is deeply alarmed by the recent escalation in Venezuela, culminating with today\u2019s United States military action in the country, which has potential worrying implications for the region,\u201d said a statement issued by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">US President Donald Trump made the announcement on social media, and the US Attorney General said Maduro and his wife would face \u201cthe full wrath of American justice on American soil, in American courts,\u201d based on a 2020 narcoterrorism indictment during the first Trump administration in New York.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The US operation began with overnight strikes in and around the capital, Caracas. Venezuela has declared a state of national emergency, with casualty figures and the extent of the damage yet to be confirmed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Venezuelan Government denounced the act of \u201cextremely serious military aggression\u201d by the US, which followed months of increasing tension including a major military build up off the Venezuela coast and a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The US ordered the seizure of sanctioned oil tankers in recent weeks amid threats that it would launch land operations to force Maduro from office.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIndependently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent. The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect &#8211; by all &#8211; of international law, including the UN Charter,\u201d\u00a0 the UN spokesperson said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cHe\u2019s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Guterres called on all parties involved to engage in \u201cinclusive dialogue\u201d in accordance with human rights and international law.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UN human rights chief Volker Turk also called for restraint and full respect for international law. \u201cThe protection of the people of Venezuela is paramount and must guide any further action,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Venezuela has formally asked the Security Council to meet in emergency session in New York.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">During a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, President Trump said that the US intended to \u201crun Venezuela\u201d until there is a \u201csafe, proper and judicious transition\u201d of power.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">As the country with the world&#8217;s largest oil reserves, he added that US oil companies would modernize and renovate infrastructure \u201cto make money for the country.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It represents the largest U.S. military operation in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama, when, as today, the U.S. captured the country&#8217;s leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to media reports, many countries expressed outrage over the capture of Maduro on Saturday, while even some U.S. allies issued statements calling for the rule of law to be respected.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Russia&#8217;s Foreign Ministry said it is &#8220;extremely alarmed&#8221; and called for &#8220;immediate clarification&#8221;, according to a statement posted on Saturday on the ministry&#8217;s Telegram channel.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It added later in a post on X: \u201cThe US committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela, which gives rise to deep concern &amp; warrants condemnation.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable. Russia reaffirms its solidarity with the Venezuelan people,&#8221;it continued in the post.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">China&#8217;s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was &#8220;deeply shocked&#8221; by what it described as a &#8220;blatant use of force against a sovereign state and action against its president.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Such hegemonic acts of the U.S. seriously violate international law and Venezuela&#8217;s sovereignty and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean region,&#8221;\u00a0 the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS, Jan 03 (APP):UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is \u201cdeeply alarmed\u201d over the standoff between the United States and Venezuela in recent months, which culminated on Saturday morning in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces. \u201cThe Secretary-General is deeply alarmed by the recent escalation in Venezuela, culminating with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1033882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_speechable_audio":"","_speechable_word_timings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1238,1239,1240,113,1241],"post_template":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-1140846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-correspondent","tag-deeply-alarmed","tag-standoff","tag-un-chief","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1033882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140846"},{"taxonomy":"post_template","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template?post=1140846"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/top_category?post=1140846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}