UN council schedules emergency session Friday over US military actions at Venezuela's request

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting late Friday at Venezuela's request on U.S. military actions in recent weeks in the waters off the South American country against what Washington calls drug traffickers.

Venezuela made the request in a letter addressed to Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the current council president, accusing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump of seeking to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and threatening “peace, security and stability regionally and internationally."

The council scheduled the meeting at 3 p.m. EDT.

Maduro's government also expressed its expectation of an “armed attack” against Venezuela in “a very short time.”

The request came a day after members of Congress voted down legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug traffickers. So far, the U.S. military has carried four deadly strikes in the Caribbean since it increased its maritime forces for what for what Trump has declared an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Maduro's government, however, maintains that the White House is using drug trafficking only as an excuse for the operation.

“The ulterior motive remains the same as that which has characterized the United States of America’s actions toward Venezuela for more than 26 years: to advance its ‘regime change’ policies in order to seize control of the vast natural resources found in Venezuelan territory,” Samuel Moncada, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.N., wrote in the letter.

Venezuela's request does not mention the nationalities of the 21 people killed in the four strikes on boats that the U.S. has claimed to have been carrying drugs. But in mentioning the four strikes, Venezuela's government offered the clearest acknowledgment yet of the first attack. Initially it doubted the report of the attack, arguing that a video Trump released had been created with artificial intelligence.

The Trump administration has said three of the targeted boats set out to sea from Venezuela.

Russia has long been an ally of Venezuela.