‘Venezuela threatens regional peace’ – Guyana tells UN Security Council

Dec 24, 2025 News

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— Warns of border incursions, drug trafficking, gold smuggling and unlawful annexation

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana on Tuesday warned that Venezuela is a threat to regional peace and reminded the United Nations Security Council of the Bolivarian Republic’s illegal actions against this country over the years.

During a meeting of the Council, Guyana’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Trishala Persaud, told members of ongoing threats to Guyana’s sovereignty posed by Venezuela. Her presentation highlighted growing regional security concerns and called for urgent international attention.

Addressing UN Secretary-General António Guterres and members of the Council, Persaud reminded the body of its “solemn responsibility of the maintenance of international peace and security in accordance with the United Nations Charter.” She stressed that the situation facing Guyana warranted immediate concern, stating that it was not an exaggeration to say that peace and security in the region are “gravely threatened, meriting the Council’s urgent attention.” She added, “Guyana is among those states most affected by these threats. In defiance of international law, including the express orders of the International Court of Justice, Venezuela has, by presidential decree and legislative enactment, purported to unlawfully annex more than two-thirds of Guyana’s sovereign territory.”

Persaud further highlighted recent incidents in which military forces operating adjacent to Guyana’s borders entered its territory and issued threats. She also drew attention to illegal activities facilitated across the border, stating, “Disregarding the universally recognised international boundary between our two states, it has allowed and facilitates the transport of illicit drugs into Guyana while illegally mining Guyana’s gold and smuggling it out of our country.”

Speaking forcefully on the impact of drug trafficking and gold smuggling originating from Venezuela, Persaud warned of the broader consequences for the region. “Mr. President, trafficking of illicit drugs, in particular, has for too long been a scourge on our region, driving crime and violence, and undermining the rule of law by weakening state institutions, fueling corruption, financing conflict and terrorism, and threatening national and regional security,” she said.

She added that despite efforts by regional leaders, progress has been limited. “There has been a consistent but thus far unsuccessful effort by leaders in our region to disrupt the criminal networks, some of them state sanctions, that fuel this cycle of destruction. Meanwhile, the threat to our security has grown more urgent and more acute. We cannot put off any longer the decisive action that is required to address it, but none of us can hope to accomplish this acting alone.”

Persaud emphasised the urgent need to strengthen cooperation with international partners, particularly those in South, Central, and North America and the Caribbean. “We must act collectively in a manner that preserves the stability of our region. We long recognise the pursuit of peace, which enhances the safety and security of our peoples,” she said.

She concluded by noting that Guyana’s aspiration for healthy, safe, and prosperous lives for its people can only be achieved in an environment of sustained peace and stability. Such conditions, she said, require cooperation and collective action among states committed to these goals. Persaud affirmed that Guyana remains fully committed to such partnerships and pledged its utmost support toward achieving lasting regional peace and security.

Depriving Venezuela

Meanwhile, the United States told the United Nations on Tuesday it will impose and enforce sanctions “to the maximum extent” to deprive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of resources as Russia warned other Latin American countries could be next.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has for months waged a campaign of against suspected drug trafficking boats off the Venezuelan coast and the Pacific coast of Latin America. He has threatened strikes on Venezuelan land. “The single most serious threat to this hemisphere, our very own neighbourhood and the United States, is from transnational terrorist and criminal groups,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the U.N. Security Council.

The U.S. has ramped up its military presence in the region and Trump announced a blockade of all vessels subject to U.S. sanctions. So far this month, the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted two tankers in the Caribbean Sea, both fully loaded with Venezuelan crude. The Coast Guard is also pursuing a third empty vessel that was approaching the OPEC country’s shore. “The reality of the situation is that sanctioned oil tankers operate as the primary economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime. The sanctioned tankers also fund the narco-terrorist group Cartel de Los Soles,” Waltz said.

Washington designated Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organisation late last month for the group’s alleged role in importing illegal drugs into the U.S. It accuses Maduro of leading Cartel de los Soles. Venezuela’s government rejected what it called a “ridiculous” move to designate the “non-existent” group. “This intervention which is unfolding can become a template for future acts of force against Latin American states,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council, citing a recent strategy document from Trump that said the U.S. will reassert its dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Waltz spoke after Nebenzia and did not directly respond to his remark.

China urged the United States to “immediately halt relevant actions and avoid further escalation of tensions,” China’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Sun Lei told the council. Venezuela, backed by Russia and China, requested Tuesday’s meeting, the second held on the escalating tensions. The Security Council first met in October, when the United States justified its actions as consistent with Article 51 of the founding U.N. Charter, which requires the Security Council to be immediately informed of any action states take in self-defense against armed attack. “Let it be clear once and for all that there is no war in the Caribbean, there is no international armed conflict, nor is there a non-international one, which is why it is absurd for the U.S. government to seek to justify its actions by applying the rules of war,” Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada told the council. “The threat is not Venezuela the threat is the U.S. government,” he said.

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• drug trafficking, gold smuggling, Trishala Persaud, UN Security Council, Venezuela

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