Venezuela, Russia, China, and the UK have urged the United States to release Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Following the U.S. attack on the South American country over the weekend, the UN ambassadors of Venezuela, Russia, and China, as well as UK lawmakers, criticised what they called the aggressive action of the U.S., which they classified as going against international law.

In a special session of the UN Security Council in New York on Monday, Russia and China strongly condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela over the weekend.

Russia described the U.S. action as “a harbinger of a turn back to the era of lawlessness and U.S. domination by force, chaos, and lawlessness, which continues to afflict dozens of states in various regions of the world”.

China said, “No country can act as the world’s police, nor presume to be the international judge.”

Both China and Russia are permanent members of the council.

Russia criticised the U.S. for acting as a self-appointed global judge for economic and political motives and to display its power.

“There was no justification for this,” the country’s UN spokeswoman asserted, adding that silence in the council would amount to an erosion of the international order.

The Chinese representative stressed that military means were not a solution to problems.

Cuba, Iran, the Non-Aligned Movement, and Colombia expressed similar views.

They all considered the U.S. action a clear violation of the UN Charter, particularly the prohibition on the use of force.

They considered Mr Maduro to be Venezuela’s legitimate president, labelled his arrest a “kidnapping” and argued that the immunity of incumbent heads of state had been violated. They also warned of a dangerous precedent for the international order.

The UK, EU-aligned states, Panama, and Chile declared that neither Mr Maduro as president nor the U.S. attack on Venezuela was legitimate. They unanimously called for a peaceful transition to a democratic system of government led by Venezuelan society.

In London, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Downing Street and called for Mr Maduro’s release.

Demonstrators chanted “free Maduro” and listened to speeches from the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Burgon. The members of parliament told Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stand up to President Donald Trump.

In the crowd, a small group of men stamped on a U.S. flag before tearing it up.

The protest came as foreign secretary Yvette Cooper was making a statement to the House of Commons a short distance away.

The prime minister has come under pressure from MPs on his Labour Party’s left wing to condemn the U.S. military action that saw Mr Maduro captured and taken to New York.

The U.S. called Mr Maduro’s arrest a surgical law-enforcement action against a narco-terrorist who was not the legitimate head of state.

Early Saturday, the U.S. attacked targets in Venezuela, captured Mr Maduro and his wife and took them out of the country to the U.S., where Mr Maduro was taken to prison.

The couple face drug-related charges in New York.

Mr Maduro and Ms Flores appeared in court on Monday and entered not-guilty pleas.

The Venezuelan government in Caracas had requested the special session of the UN Security Council with the support of China and Russia.

The reason given was that the U.S. attack, which removed Mr Maduro, constituted a violation of the UN Charter and endangered peace in the region and throughout the world.

(dpa/NAN)