United Nations Security Council meets on Venezuela

The top United Nations official said that the United States may have violated international law with its unilateral action.

In a statement, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said he remains "deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action."

At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday, Colombian Ambassador Leonor Zalabata said the raid in Venezuela was reminiscent of "the worst interference in our area in the past."

But her carefully calibrated remarks mentioned the U.S. only obliquely and shied from the type of fiery criticism Colombian President Gustavo Petro lobbed at the U.S. last fall during the U.N.’s biggest annual meeting.

U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz defended the military action as a justified "surgical law enforcement operation."

"If the United Nations in this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist with the same treatment in this charter of a democratically elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?" Waltz said.