Colombian President Gustavo Petro has also ordered the deployment of military forces to the Venezuelan border.
Russia on Saturday demanded “immediate” clarification about the circumstances of the reported US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during an attack ordered by President Donald Trump.
“We are extremely alarmed by reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were forcibly removed from the country as a result of today’s US aggression. We call for an immediate clarification of the situation,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Venezuela has meanwhile demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the US attacks on the country, amid the uncertainty over the whereabouts of Maduro.
“Faced with the criminal aggression committed by the US government against our homeland, we have requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which is responsible for upholding international law,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote on the Telegram messaging platform.
US ‘bombed residential areas’
Venezuela accused the United States of hitting residential areas in a wave of strikes early Saturday, and announced a major deployment of military resources.
The “invading” US forces “have desecrated our soil, going so far as to strike, using missiles and rockets fired from their combat helicopters, residential areas populated by civilians,” Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said in a video statement shared on social media.
Lopez added that the South American country would launch a “massive deployment of all land, air, naval, riverine and missile capabilities… for comprehensive defence.”
He said authorities were gathering “information on the injured and dead” in Washington’s “vile and cowardly attack”.
According to Lopez, residential areas were hit in the area of Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, situated in the south of Caracas, as well as in the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira around the capital.
Explosions thundered across Caracas around 2:00 am (0600 GMT, 08:00 in SA), rattling windows in many neighbourhoods, AFP journalists reported.
More explosions were later recorded in other cities across the country.
The detonations continued in the capital for close to an hour while the sound of what seemed to be aircraft could be heard overhead.
Several areas of the capital were left without electricity.
Lopez expressed Venezuela’s “strongest condemnation” of the US attack, which he said was in “flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.”
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Colombia move troops to the border
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Saturday he ordered the deployment of military forces to the Venezuelan border, following US strikes that, according to Donald Trump, ended with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Petro described Washington’s actions as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and said they would result in a humanitarian crisis
While proposing that the situation could be resolved through “dialogue,” the leftist president said on X that he had also ordered the “deployment of the security forces” to the Venezuelan border.
Petro made no mention of Maduro’s capture, despite the Venezuelan leader being one of his government’s closest allies in the region.
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