Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil on Tuesday called for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to help “restore common sense” and stop the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters — which the Venezuelan narco-state deems a “threat.”
Gil met with U.N. Resident Coordinator in Venezuela Gianluca Rampolla on Tuesday. According to the regime’s main propaganda outlet, VTV, the officials “debated the threats facing Latin America and the Caribbean from the United States.” Secretary-General Guterres has not publicly commented on Venezuela’s request at press time.
“We request the support of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to restore common sense. In this regard, we share our concerns about the deployment of US military units and even nuclear weapons in the Caribbean, which threatens peace,” Gil wrote on his official Telegram account.
“In the face of false narratives, used as a pretext to justify aggression against Venezuela, we confirm that the 2025 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) has ratified Venezuela as a territory free of illicit crops. Furthermore, the efforts of the Bolivarian Government have been duly certified by the UNDOC,” he continued.
Gil’s meeting with Rampolla and his request to Guterres come days after the administration of President Donald Trump increased its efforts to combat drug trafficking in the region and curb the flow of drugs entering the United States. Reports published this month indicated that the U.S. deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers and reportedly “about 4,000 sailors and Marines” to Caribbean international waters to fight against local drug trafficking organizations. Subsequent reports published this week detailed that the United States deployed the USS Lake Erie guided missile cruiser and the USS Newport News, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, to reinforce the U.S.’s ongoing efforts. Both are reportedly expected to arrive in the region by early next week.
Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his authoritarian regime have condemned the United States’ ongoing drug-fighting efforts in the Caribbean and have repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that the United States’s actions are instead part of a purported plot to “invade” Venezuela and oust Maduro from power.
Maduro is actively wanted by the United States on multiple narco-terrorism charges and stands accused of being a leading figure of the Cartel of the Suns, a U.S.-identified Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) led by top leading members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Venezuelan military. Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López also stand accused by U.S. authorities of leading the Cartel of the Suns and are wanted on multiple narco-terrorism charges. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this month that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.
In recent days, Maduro has ordered a series of “preparations” for the alleged American “invasion” and launched a campaign to enlist civilians into the Bolivarian Militia that local and international outlets widely reported as a failure. On Tuesday, Defense Minister López claimed that Venezuela would also deploy “large ships” to “combat drug trafficking” in Caribbean waters.
While several countries in the region such as Argentina, Paraguay, and Ecuador have each recently designated the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization, Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro instead claimed that the widely documented organization “does not exist” and is instead a “fictitious excuse used by the far-right to overthrow governments that do not obey them.”
Petro – an avid defender of the use of cocaine who has repeatedly called for its legalization, and presently the target of a Congressional inquiry on drug addiction allegations — has openly expressed his support for Maduro ahead of a purported U.S. “invasion” of the neighboring country.
In addition to requesting the U.N. chief’s help, Venezuela’s representation at the U.N. issued a diplomatic note addressed to all U.N.-member states delegations informing of the alleged “escalation” of the “hostile actions and threats by the Government of the United States of America” with the deployment of the USS Lake Erie and USS Newport News mentioned in the recent reports. The Maduro regime denounced the reportedly deployed cruiser and submarine as a “grave threat to regional peace and security.”
The Venezuelan regime, through its delegation at the U.N., demanded the “immediate cessation of U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean, including the nuclear submarine USS Newport News,” as well as “clear and verifiable guarantees from the United States of America that it will not deploy or threaten to use nuclear weapons in the Latin American and Caribbean region.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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