US raid on Venezuela ‘undermined a fundamental principle of international law’, says UN rights body – live | US attack on Venezuela
It is ‘clear’ the US raid on Venezuela ‘undermined a fundamental principle of international law’, UN human rights office says
A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has said it is “clear” that the US military operation to capture Maduro and his wife over the weekend “undermined a fundamental principle of international law”.
In a statement, the spokesperson said Türk, a career UN official and human rights lawyer, is “deeply worried” about the “situation in Venezuela”, which has left many Venezuelans fearful as the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, starts presiding under the apparent supervision of Washington, with Trump vowing to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry with the help of America’s biggest oil companies.
Here is more of the statement issued by the spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights:
It is clear that the operation undermined a fundamental principle of international law – that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The US has justified its intervention on the grounds of the Venezuelan government’s longstanding and appalling human rights record, but accountability for human rights violations cannot be achieved by unilateral military intervention in violation of international law. The people of Venezuela deserve accountability through a fair, victim-centred process.
As has been clear in the UN Human Rights Office’s consistent reporting on the continued deterioration of the situation in Venezuela for about a decade, the rights of the Venezuelan people have been violated for too long. We fear that the current instability and further militarisation in the country resulting from the US intervention will only make the situation worse.
Key events
Donald Trump is in Washington today. We’ll hear from him at 10am ET, when he addresses House Republicans at their annual retreat – taking place at the newly-minted ‘Trump Kennedy Center’. It will be the president’s first public appearance since Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared in federal court on Monday and plead “not-guilty” to all charges against them.
At the same time, House Democrats are holding a hearing to mark the five-year anniversary of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. Those speaking include Brendan Ballou, who prosecuted several of the rioters, Winston Pingeon, a former Capitol police officer who was attacked on the day, and Pamela Hemphill, a rioter who refused Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon.
A group of European countries underlined their support for Denmark today amid Donald Trump’s renewed calls to take over Greenland after the removal of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro.
You can read the statement from the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain, and Denmark, and catch up with the latest developments on Ukraine, in our Europe live blog.
My colleagues Tom Phillips and Sam Jones have looked at the opposition’s reaction to the US’s operation in Venezuela and Donald Trump’s apparent dismissal of the idea that the conservative activist María Corina Machado could now lead Venezuela. Here is an extract from their story:
“[I felt] astonished, I could not believe what I was hearing,” Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister and opposition supporter, said, capturing the opposition confusion and frustration that their movement’s leader appeared to have been unexpectedly cast aside by the White House.
“The political strategy that Trump and Marco Rubio have laid out is truly bizarre,” Hausmann added, warning that post-Maduro Venezuela found itself in “a legal and a political vacuum” and still under the control of “illegitimate leaders” led by Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president on Monday.
One US official told the New York Times: “[Rodríguez is] certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with [Maduro].”
Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, sought to put a brave face on the situation on Monday, hailing Trump’s “courageous vision” and offering to share her Nobel peace prize with him during an interview with Fox News.
“[Maduro’s removal] is a huge step for humanity,” said Machado, who has not returned to Venezuela since sneaking out to travel to Oslo last month to receive the Nobel prize.
But analysts said opposition leaders were bitterly disappointed by Trump’s decision not to back Machado and Edmundo González, a former diplomat who ran in the 2024 election on Machado’s behalf after she was banned and who is widely believed to have won by a landslide.
Free all the Venezuelan political prisoners, opposition demands
The Reuters news agency has a quick snap saying that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s movement has demanded the release of all political prisoners after the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro.
“Those who unjustly hold the civilian and military political prisoners should free them immediately,” the Vente Venezuela movement said of political detainees, whom a leading local rights group puts at 863.
Machado’s movement is widely believed to have beaten Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, which many countries, including the US, rejected the official result of.
Many people were imprisoned for protesting Maduro’s declaration of victory or for participating in the opposition’s electoral campaign.
Protesters have gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to demonstrate against the US attack in Venezuela:
If you would like to hear some reflections on Donald Trump’s first year in power (this time around) you can join our upcoming event: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they discuss the first year of Trump’s second presidency. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
US trial of Maduro undermines stability of international relations, China’s foreign ministry says
Amy Hawkins
Amy Hawkins is the Guardian’s senior China correspondent
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that the trial of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in New York “severely violat[ed] Venezuela’s national sovereignty” and undermined the stability of international relations.
The comments came the day after a China-backed emergency meeting at the UN Security Council in which countries condemned the US’s military operation to capture Maduro as illegal.
Venezuela is a key China ally in Latin America. The South American country has received over $100bn in Chinese loans and Maduro’s last meeting was with a Chinese delegation visiting Caracas, who he greeted hours before he was captured by US forces.
Here is some more of the statement on Venezuela from the spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights:
The state of emergency declared by the Venezuelan authorities that took effect on Saturday raises concerns as it authorises restrictions on free movement of people, the seizure of property necessary for national defence, and the suspension of the right to assembly and to protest, among other measures.
The high commissioner calls on the US and the Venezuelan authorities, as well as the international community, to ensure full respect for international law, including human rights.
The future of Venezuela must be determined by the Venezuelan people alone, with full respect for their human rights, including the right to self-determination, and sovereignty over their lives and their resources.
It is ‘clear’ the US raid on Venezuela ‘undermined a fundamental principle of international law’, UN human rights office says
A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has said it is “clear” that the US military operation to capture Maduro and his wife over the weekend “undermined a fundamental principle of international law”.
In a statement, the spokesperson said Türk, a career UN official and human rights lawyer, is “deeply worried” about the “situation in Venezuela”, which has left many Venezuelans fearful as the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, starts presiding under the apparent supervision of Washington, with Trump vowing to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry with the help of America’s biggest oil companies.
Here is more of the statement issued by the spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights:
It is clear that the operation undermined a fundamental principle of international law – that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The US has justified its intervention on the grounds of the Venezuelan government’s longstanding and appalling human rights record, but accountability for human rights violations cannot be achieved by unilateral military intervention in violation of international law. The people of Venezuela deserve accountability through a fair, victim-centred process.
As has been clear in the UN Human Rights Office’s consistent reporting on the continued deterioration of the situation in Venezuela for about a decade, the rights of the Venezuelan people have been violated for too long. We fear that the current instability and further militarisation in the country resulting from the US intervention will only make the situation worse.
Maduro’s legal team includes acclaimed lawyer who represented Julian Assange
Adam Gabbatt
Adam Gabbatt is a writer and presenter for Guardian US, based in New York
When Nicolás Maduro appeared in court in New York on Monday, his choice of lawyer quickly raised eyebrows.
The captured Venezuelan president was accompanied by Barry Pollack, a top-tier US trial lawyer who spent years representing Julian Assange, eventually securing the WikiLeaks founder’s release from prison in the UK in 2024.
Pollack is a partner at Harris St Laurent & Wechsler, a law firm based on New York’s Wall Street in the financial district of lower Manhattan, just a few minutes walk from the federal court where Maduro pleaded not guilty to criminal charges on Monday.
Pollack will take on a case as Maduro’s private counsel that could prove to be just as challenging as that of Assange. Maduro was charged on Monday with drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, with the US government labelling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and an “illegitimate president”. He faces up to life in prison.
Harris St Laurent & Wechsler did not respond to requests for comment about Pollack’s involvement, but it is clear that in the legal world, he is highly regarded. According to Chambers USA, Pollack is a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries”.
You can read the full story here:
Among the international laws the US may have breached, if it provides no justification for the attacks, is the founding charter of the UN.
Article 2 of the UN charter says all members should refrain from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
My colleague Geraldine McKelvie spoke to leading experts in the field of international law to ask for their view on the US attack on Venezuela. Here is an extract from her story:
The experts the Guardian spoke to agreed that the US is likely to have violated the terms of the UN charter, which was signed in October 1945 and designed to prevent another conflict on the scale of the second world war. A central provision of this agreement – known as article 2(4) – rules that states must refrain from using military force against other countries and must respect their sovereignty.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, a founding head of Doughty Street Chambers and a former president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone, said the attack on Venezuela was contrary to article 2(4) of the charter. “The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations charter,” he added. “It has committed the crime of aggression, which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all.”
The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, made a statement in the House of Commons on Monday about the US raid on Venezuela.
Cooper told the Commons she had stressed the importance of international law in a conversation with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, but would not say whether she saw the US attack as illegal, saying it was for Washington to set out its justification.
A large section of her statement focused on the brutality of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. “We have seen Maduro’s regime systematically dismantle democratic institutions, silencing dissent and weaponizing state resources to maintain power through fear and corruption,” she said.
Cooper added:
I discussed with Secretary Rubio what should happen next and our continued commitment to a transition to a peaceful and stable democracy.
Our collective immediate focus must be on avoiding any deterioration in Venezuela into further instability, criminality or violence. That would be deeply damaging for the people of Venezuela, our own overseas territories, our allies in the US and other regional partners.
The UK has long been clear that leadership of Venezuela must reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.
You can read her full statement on Venezuela here.
British PM choosing his ‘words carefully’ over response to US attack on Venezuela, health secretary says
In the UK, the health secretary Wes Streeting has defended Keir Starmer’s cautious response to the US attack in Venezuela despite MPs wanting the prime minister to condemn what is seen as an operation against a sovereign country in violation of international law.
Starmer, always keen to keep on the good side of the US, has declined to criticise the US military operation over the weekend, unlike several Labour MPs including Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee.
Streeting told BBC Breakfast this morning that he had “enormous respect” for Thornberry, who was “right” to speak “honestly and candidly” about her view (that the lack of western condemnation could embolden China and Russia to take similar action against other countries).
But he added:
The prime minister and the foreign secretary have a different role and responsibility, and their words carry different weight.
And what I can tell you is that at every moment in recent days, since the US action in Venezuela, the prime minister has judged what he says and when he says it with one overriding consideration, which is how to make a challenging situation better, not worse, and how to do so in a way that protects the UK’s national interests, our collective security, particularly in Europe at a difficult time, and also the best interests of the people of Venezuela who have the right to choose their own leaders and who governs them.
That’s what the prime minister has been doing, and I appreciate there are others who have been more strident and have been more critical of the United States.
The prime minister has a different responsibility, and he is choosing his words carefully and wisely to try and influence how events unfold from here on.
