Venezuela seeks emergency UN meeting over US strikes off its coast

Venezuela on Friday requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, asking the body to address recent U.S. military actions in waters off its coast and warning that an armed attack by the United States could occur imminently. The letter, addressed to Russia’s U.N. ambassador and the council president, cites four U.S. strikes in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks that Venezuela says killed 21 people and calls the operations a threat to regional peace and stability.

The United States has said the strikes targeted vessels carrying illegal narcotics as part of an expanded maritime campaign tied to a declared conflict with drug cartels. U.S. officials have said three of the targeted boats set out from Venezuelan shores. Caracas rejects that explanation, calling the drug-trafficking claim a pretext for a broader effort by Washington to destabilize the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, Samuel Moncada, wrote that the strikes fit a pattern of U.S. actions aimed at advancing regime change and seizing the country’s resources.

The Security Council convened a rare session on the matter after the request. Russia and China strongly...