--- title: "Venezuela: Peace, survival of humanity depend on UN Charter remaining a living instrument" description: "This is a presentation by Jeffrey Sachs, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, to the UN Security Council hearing on Venezuela on 5 January 2026." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "UN SECURITY COUNCIL SPEECH" author: "Jeffrey Sachs" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/jeff-sach/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-01-06-venezuela-peace-survival-of-humanity-dep-depend-on-un-charter-remaining-a-living/" published: "2026-01-06T20:16:51" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 1030 --- # Venezuela: Peace, survival of humanity depend on UN Charter remaining a living instrument > This is a presentation by Jeffrey Sachs, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, to the UN Security Council hearing on Venezuela on 5 January 2026. By Jeffrey Sachs · Published 6 January 2026, 22:16 SAST ## Key points - Legal mandate: The central issue is not Venezuela’s internal politics, but the protection of the UN Charter (Article 2, Section 4), which prohibits the use of force or coercion against the political independence of any state. - History of intervention: The United States has a documented history of dozens of regime-change operations since 1947, using methods such as economic warfare, covert intelligence and unauthorised military action to bypass international law. - Impact on Venezuela: Recent US actions – including sweeping sanctions, freezing of sovereign assets and threats of invasion – have caused a catastrophic decline in Venezuela’s economy and constitute an illegal pursuit of regime change. - Call to action: To prevent a return to international anarchy, the Security Council must demand that the US cease all threats and naval quarantines, while appointing a UN special envoy to resolve the crisis through diplomacy and adherence to the Charter. ## Content ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/gNZKiZPF4-YQh91yyhtjMukrWaY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/label-Op-Ed.jpg) Mr President, distinguished members of the Security Council. The issue before the Council 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, Section 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 Council must decide whether that prohibition is to be upheld or abandoned. Abandoning it would carry consequences of the gravest kind. Let me offer some background. Since 1947, the United States’ foreign policy has repeatedly employed force, covert action, and political manipulation to bring about regime change in other countries. This is a matter of carefully documented historical record. ### US regime change operations In her book, Covert Regime Change, political scientist Lindsey O’Rourke documents 70 attempted US regime change operations between 1947 and 1989 alone. These practices did not end with the Cold War. Since 1989, major United States regime change operations undertaken without authorisation by the Security Council have included, among the most consequential, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria beginning in 2011, Honduras 2009, Ukraine 2014 and Venezuela from 2002 onward. The methods employed are well established and well documented. They 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. These measures are illegal under the UN Charter, and they typically result in ongoing violence, lethal conflict, political instability and deep suffering of the civilian population. ### US vs Venezuela record The recent US record with respect to Venezuela is also clear. In April 2002, the US knew of and approved an attempted coup against the government. In the 2010s, the United States funded civil society groups actively engaged in anti-government protests. When the government cracked down on the protests, the US followed with a series of sanctions. In 2015, President Barack Obama declared Venezuela to be, “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”. In 2017, at a dinner with Latin American leaders on the margin of the UN General Assembly, President Trump openly discussed the option of the US invading Venezuela to overthrow the government. During 2017 to 2020, the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on the state oil company, PDVSA. Oil production fell by 75% from 2016 to 2020, and real GDP per capita declined by 62%. 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 measures. On the 23rd of January 2019, the United States unilaterally recognised Mr Juan Guaido as interim president, and a few days later froze approximately $7-billion of Venezuelan sovereign assets held abroad, and gave him the designated authority over certain of these assets. These actions form part of a continuous US regime change effort spanning more than two decades. In the past year, the United States has carried out bombing operations in seven countries, none of which were authorised by the UN Security Council, and none of which were undertaken in lawful self-defence under the Charter. The targeted countries include Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and now Venezuela. In the past month, President Trump has issued direct threats against six UN member states, including Colombia, Denmark, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria and, of course, Venezuela. Members of the Council are not called upon to judge Nicolas Maduro. They are not called upon to assess whether the recent US attack and ongoing naval quarantine result in freedom or in subjugation. Members of the Council are called upon to defend international law, and specifically the UN Charter. ### Great power politics The Realist School of International Relations, articulated most brilliantly by John Mearsheimer, accurately describes the condition of international anarchy as the tragedy of great power politics. Realism is therefore a description, not a solution for peace. Its own conclusion is that anarchy leads to tragedy. In the aftermath of World War 1, 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 renewed global war. The United Nations emerged from that catastrophe as humanity’s second great effort to place international law above international 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 fulfil its responsibilities under the Charter, the Security Council should immediately affirm the following actions: - The United States shall immediately cease and desist from all explicit and implicit threats or use of force against Venezuela. - The United States shall terminate its naval quarantine and all related coercive military measures undertaken in the absence of authorisation by the UN Security Council. - The United States shall immediately withdraw its military forces from within and along the perimeter of Venezuela, including intelligence, naval, air and other forward-deployed assets positioned for coercive purposes. - Venezuela shall adhere to the UN Charter and to the human rights protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. - The Secretary General, I recommend, should 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 Charter, and the Security Council should remain urgently seized of this matter. - All member states should refrain from unilateral threats, coercive measures or armed actions undertaken outside the authority of the UN Security Council. In closing, Mr President and distinguished members of the Council, peace and the survival of humanity depend on whether the United Nations Charter remains a living instrument of international law or is allowed to wither into irrelevance. That is the choice before this Council today. **DM**