Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing by Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, on Threats to international peace and security – Security Council, 10015th meeting.
Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča today (10 Oct) stressed “the need for all efforts to counter transnational organized crime to be conducted in accordance with international law, including the UN charter,” and called on the United States and Venezuela to de-escalate and “avoid any actions that may threaten international peace and security in the region.”
Jenča told a Security Council requested by Venezuela in respond to The US military buid-up in the Caribbean, that “the United Nations recognizes the devastating impact of violence driven by transnational organized crime, which affects production, transit, and destination countries alike, tearing at the fabric of communities and undermining development and stability across the region.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, who presided the meeting, said, “the American propaganda is asking us to believe in the existence of the mythical Cartel de los Soles, the Cartel of the Suns, which allegedly is moving tons of cocaine from Venezuela to the USA, and the head of which is none other than the president of the Bolivarian Republic, that the US does not like.”
Nebenzya said this was “an excellent subject for a Hollywood blockbuster, in which the Americans would once again save the world,” but added that “these assertions are not underpinned by facts at all.
US representative John Kelley said, “the United States has reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others, based on the cumulative effect of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations.”
US President Donanld Trump, Kelley said, “has determined the United States is in a non-international armed conflict and has directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them, pursuant to the law of armed conflict and consistent with article 51 of the UN charter.”
He said Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro “is a fugitive from American justice, and the head of the vicious narco-terrorist Cartel de los Soles.”
Moreover, Kelley added, “it is the action and policies of the illegitimate Maduro regime that pose an extraordinary threat to both the region and the national security of the United States.”
Venezuela’s Ambassador Samuel Reinaldo Moncada, for his part told the Council that “we are facing a situation in which it is rational to anticipate that in the very short term, an armed attack is to be perpetrated against Venezuela.”
Moncada said, “the United States government conceals its crimes under the guise of self-defense. In so doing, it murders civilians without providing information as to their identity, without, proving the nature of the cargo aboard the vessels, and without providing any evidence on the imminent nature of an armed attack against US forces. This is not self-defense. These are extrajudicial killings.”
Outside the Council, talking to reporters he said, “we still have time to tackle the situation and to bring sense into the United States government and use peaceful means; means that the UN Charter offers, in order to resolve any situation by diplomatic and political means. Otherwise, we are walking towards a catastrophe that may destroy the whole region for generations.
Asked about the Peace Nobel Prize, awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado, Moncada said, “my reaction is that I was really hoping that she would win the physics Nobel, the Nobel of Physics, because she has the same kind credentials for the Nobel of Peace, the Peace Nobel. I mean, I guess that next year maybe she wins the Physics Nobel.”