Venezuela has accused the United States of the greatest extortion at an emergency session of the UN Security Council in New York.
Washington's seizure of two Venezuelan oil tankers was worse than piracy, the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN said.
The emergency meeting of the Security Council was called to discuss the seizure of the tankers, which took place off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month.
The US has also said it was pursuing a third Venezuelan oil tanker.
President Trump has accused Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drugs cartel and said gangs had operated with impunity for too long.
On December 16, Trump ordered a naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. The US president mentioned that the US will keep or sell the crude oil contained on tankers it has seized, as well as the vessels themselves.
The US has deployed 15,000 troops along with various aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean, marking the largest deployment to the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
The stated aim of this deployment is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the US. Additionally, the US has targeted more than 20 vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean in recent months, contributing to significant violence in the region as part of President Trump's campaign against alleged drug trafficking gangs.
Some experts suggest that the strikes against these vessels could violate international laws concerning armed conflict.
Venezuela's envoy, Samuel Moncada, expressed that the US was conducting the greatest extortion in the nation’s history, asserting that the US claims to jurisdiction over Caribbean matters were unfounded.
Conversely, the US Ambassador to the UN, Michael Waltz, rejected Maduro's legitimacy, suggesting that the Venezuelan leadership uses oil revenues to sustain its power through illegal activities.
Following the UN meeting, President Maduro reiterated that the Security Council was providing overwhelming support to Venezuela, while representatives from Russia and China condemned the US’s actions as aggressive and bullying.
The Russian ambassador described the US stance as illegally destroying civilian vessels, cautioning that such behavior could lead to further escalations against other Latin American states.
Ultimately, China’s UN envoy urged the US to halt its operations to prevent further tensions in the region.
