World leaders call for UN response after Maduro capture

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

The international community is reacting to the news that President Donald Trump announced early in the morning on social media: The U.S. carried out a series of strikes on Venezuela overnight and apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

In the hours since, many world leaders have come out against America’s actions, including from Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Columbia, China, Iran and Russia.

The Mexican government released an official statement “strongly” condemning the attack, saying the U.S. was “in clear violation” of the United Nations Charter.

“The Government of Mexico… rejects the military actions unilaterally carried out in recent hours by the armed forces of the United States of America against targets within the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” the statement reads.

The government then implored the U.N. to intervene.

“It also urges the United Nations to act immediately to help de-escalate tensions, facilitate dialogue, and create conditions that allow for a peaceful, sustainable solution in accordance with international law.”

Leader of Communist Cuba and Maduro ally, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, was one of the first to publicly denounce the attack, taking to X just before 3 AM Saturday. Like Mexico, Cuba called on a response from “the international community” against what Díaz-Canel called the “criminal attack.”

“Our #ZonaDePaz is being brutally assaulted,” he wrote, referring to a 2014 declaration by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States establishing the region as a “Zone of Peace.” The U.S. and Canada were not party to the declaration.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, another Maduro ally, released an official statement saying that Venezuela must be allowed to “determine its own destiny without any destructive, especially military, interference from outside.”

It has joined others in calling for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to condemn America’s actions and encourage a peaceful resolution.

Several Western leaders have expressed concern for international law without outright condemning the attack.

“I want to establish the facts first,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. “I can be absolutely clear that we were not involved … and I always say and believe we should all uphold international law.”

The leaders of Argentina, Ecuador and Ukraine, on the other hand, expressed full support for America’s actions.

“Freedom advances. Long live freedom, damnit,” wrote Argentinian President Javier Milei on X.

“Ukraine has consistently defended the right of nations to live freely, free of dictatorship, oppression, and human rights violations,” wrote the Ukrainian foreign ministry in a statement. “The Maduro regime has violated all such principles in every respect.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York and that Maduro has been charged with “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote on X.