Time for US to stop violating UN charter

Editor's note: Jeffrey D. Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, delivered a statement to the United Nations Security Council on Jan 5, 2026, regarding the situation in Venezuela. The US strikes on Venezuela and illegal "capture" of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife are endangering UN charter and world order. The original statement has been slightly edited for publication in China Daily. Excerpt from the statement follows:

The issue today is not the character of the government of Venezuela. The issue is whether any member state — by force, coercion, or economic strangulation — has the right to determine Venezuela's political future or to exercise control over its affairs.

This question goes directly to Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The Security Council must decide whether that prohibition is to be upheld or abandoned. Abandoning it would carry consequences of the gravest kind.

Since 1947, the United States foreign policy has repeatedly employed force, covert action and political manipulation to bring about regime changes in other countries. In her book Covert Regime Change (2018), political scientist Lindsey O'Rourke documents 70 regime-change operations attempted by the US between 1947 and 1989 alone.

These practices did not end with the Cold War. Since 1989, major US regime-change operations undertaken without authorization by the Security Council have included Iraq in 2003,Libya in 2011, Syria from 2011, Honduras in 2009, Ukraine in 2014 and Venezuela from 2002 onward.

The methods employed include open warfare, covert intelligence operations, instigation of unrest, support for armed groups, manipulation of mass and social media, bribery of military and civilian officials, targeted assassinations, false-flag operations and economic warfare aimed at collapsing civilian life. These measures are illegal under the UN Charter, and they typically result in violence, lethal conflict, political instability and deep suffering of the civilian population.

The US efforts for regime change in Venezuela span two decades. In April 2002, the US approved an attempted coup against the Venezuelan government. In the 2010s, the US funded civil society groups engaged in anti-government protests. When the government cracked down, the US imposed sanctions. In 2015, US president Barack Obama declared Venezuela to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the US".

In 2017, on the margins of the UN General Assembly, US President Donald Trump openly discussed the option of invading Venezuela to overthrow the government. From 2017 to 2020, the US imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company. Between 2016 and 2020, oil production fell by 75 percent, and real GDP per capita (PPP) declined by 62 percent.

The UN General Assembly has repeatedly voted overwhelmingly against such unilateral coercive measures. Under international law, only the Security Council has the authority to impose such sanctions.

On Jan 23, 2019, the US unilaterally recognized Juan Guaidó as "interim president" of Venezuela. Five days later, on Jan 28, 2019, it froze approximately $7 billion of Venezuelan sovereign assets held abroad and gave Guaidó authority over certain assets.

In the past year, the US has carried out bombing operations in seven countries, none of which were authorized by the Security Council or undertaken in lawful self-defense under the Charter. The targeted countries include Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and now Venezuela. In the past month, Trump has issued direct threats against at least six UN member states, including Colombia, Denmark, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria and, of course, Venezuela.

Members of the Security Council are not called upon to judge Nicolás Maduro or assess whether the recent US attack and ongoing naval quarantine of Venezuela result in freedom or in subjugation. They are called upon to defend international law, and specifically the UN Charter.

The realist school of international relations accurately describes the condition of international anarchy as "the tragedy of great power politics". Its conclusion is that international anarchy leads to tragedy. In the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations was created to end the tragedy through the application of international law. Yet the world's leading nations failed to defend international law in the 1930s, leading to another global war.

The UN emerged from that catastrophe as humanity's second great effort to place international law above anarchy. In the words of the Charter, the UN was created "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind."

Given that we are in the nuclear age, failure cannot be repeated. Humanity would perish. There would be no third chance.

To fulfill its responsibilities under the Charter, the Security Council should immediately affirm that the US shall immediately cease and desist from all explicit and implicit threats or use of force against Venezuela. It shall terminate its naval quarantine and all related coercive military measures undertaken without authorization by the Security Council. The US shall immediately withdraw its military forces from within and along the perimeter of Venezuela. The UN Secretary-General shall immediately appoint a Special Envoy, mandated to engage relevant Venezuelan and international stakeholders and to report back to the Security Council within 14 days with recommendations consistent with the UN Charter. All member states shall refrain from unilateral threats, coercive measures or armed actions undertaken outside the authority of the Security Council, in strict conformity with the Charter.

Peace and the survival of humanity depend on whether the UN Charter remains a living instrument of international law or is allowed to wither into irrelevance. That is the choice before the world today.

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