Venezuela’s government on Thursday requested an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council focused on the U.S. military actions in recent weeks in the waters off the South American country. Caracas cited “mounting threats” from the U.S., which has conducted multiple military strikes on alleged drug boats off Venezuela.
Venezuela made the request in a letter addressed to Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. and council president, Vassily Nebenzia, that accused the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump of seeking to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and threatening “peace, security and stability regionally and internationally.”
Maduro’s government also expressed its expectation of an “armed attack” against Venezuela in “a very short time.”
At U.N. headquarters in New York, diplomats told AFP the talks would take place on Friday at 3:00 pm.
The request came a day after members of Congress voted down legislation that would have put a check on Mr. Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug traffickers. So far, the U.S. military has carried four deadly strikes in the Caribbean since it increased its maritime forces for what for what Mr. Trump has declared an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Maduro’s government, however, maintains that the White House is using drug trafficking only as an excuse for the operation.
“The ulterior motive remains the same as that which has characterized the United States of America’s actions toward Venezuela for more than 26 years: to advance its ‘regime change’ policies in order to seize control of the vast natural resources found in Venezuelan territory,” Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N., wrote in the letter.
Venezuela’s request does not mention the nationalities of the 21 people killed in the four strikes on boats that the U.S. has claimed to have been carrying drugs. But in mentioning the four strikes, Venezuela’s government offered the clearest acknowledgment yet of the first attack, which it initially doubted by arguing that a video Trump released showing the attack had been created with artificial intelligence.
The Trump administration has said three of the targeted boats set out to sea from Venezuela.
Russia has long been an ally of Venezuela.
Last week, Maduro said he was ready to declare a state of emergency over what he called the threat of U.S. “aggression.” Maduro, whose election in 2024 was widely dismissed as non-democratic and whose leadership is not recognized by the U.S. and many other nations, also denied claims by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the Venezuelan military is in cahoots with drug cartels.
“I reject and repudiate the comments by Marco Rubio and I defend the morality of our soldiers,” Maduro said.
The United States is now offering a $50 million bounty for the arrest of Maduro.
Venezuela’s request to the U.N. came just hours before the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan political opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.