Eduardo González
Spain’s representative to the UN, Héctor Gómez, warned the United Nations Security Council on Monday that the US military intervention in Venezuela “constitutes a very worrying precedent for peace in the region and the world.” Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended “respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states,” both in Ukraine, Gaza, and Venezuela, and expressed his “full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland.”
“Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states is a non-negotiable principle, from Ukraine to Gaza, including Venezuela,” Sánchez wrote on social media. “Spain will always be actively engaged with the United Nations and fully committed to solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland,” he added.
For his part, Héctor Gómez spoke this Friday at the special session of the United Nations Security Council on Venezuela, where he affirmed that “Spain defends the validity of an international order based on rules” and warned that military intervention in Venezuela (he did not explicitly mention the United States) represents “a very worrying precedent for peace in the region and the world.”
“A country’s natural resources are part of its sovereignty,” he continued, referring to US President Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Venezuelan oil. “We agree that the fight against organized crime is a priority, but within the framework of international law,” he added, regarding the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for his alleged links to drug trafficking.
Gómez also recalled that Spain did not recognize Maduro’s victory in the July 2024 presidential elections, provided protection to opposition members persecuted by the regime, and condemned the violation of human rights and freedoms in Venezuela. However, he warned that these principles cannot be imposed through violence, but rather through dialogue among Venezuelans, because “force never brings more democracy.”
In the debate, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, stated that the US military operation to capture Maduro violates basic principles of international law and recalled, on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, that the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of a State.
The representative of Venezuela, Samuel Moncada, denounced the “flagrant violation” of the UN Charter and international law by the United States and warned that the Security Council would compromise the credibility of international law and its own authority if it did not “clearly and unequivocally condemn the use of force against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
“Venezuela urges this Security Council to fully assume its responsibility and demand that the Government of the United States of America fully respect the immunities of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, as well as their immediate release and safe return to Venezuela,” he stated.
For his part, the United States representative to the UN, Michael Waltz, defended the operation against Maduro, a “so-called president” who has not been “democratically elected,” and asserted that the Venezuelan leader has faced drug trafficking charges “for decades” and that there is “overwhelming evidence” against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, which will be presented to the US justice system.
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia condemned the “armed aggression” in Venezuela and accused the United States of violating “all norms of international law,” while China’s representative, Geng Shuang, stated that the military attack has “trampled on Venezuelan sovereignty” and violated the principles of equality between states and non-interference in internal affairs.
PP and Sumar
For her part, the PP’s Deputy Secretary for Institutional Regeneration, Cuca Gamarra, declared on both Cadena SER and TVE that the position of her party and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, regarding the overthrow and capture of Nicolás Maduro during the US military assault is “crystal clear.” She warned the government that “those who have tolerated, enabled, and aided Maduro’s criminal regime cannot appeal to the rule of law and therefore to international law.”
Ernest Urtasun, Minister of Culture and spokesperson for Sumar (the minority party in Pedro Sánchez’s government), told TVE that the US attack on Venezuela was an “outrage” against the entire legal framework built after World War II and constitutes “a very serious violation of international law.” “We must stop considering Trump and the US as our main ally and security provider, and see them as a danger to international law,” declared Urtasun, who therefore urged moving “as quickly as possible towards European political and military autonomy.”
