AFP, United Nations

Venezuela called Friday at the United Nations for solidarity against the “threat” of the United States, which has carried out deadly strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats.

“As they can’t accuse Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons, they’re making up vulgar and perverse lies that no one believes, neither in the US nor around the world, to justify an atrocious, extravagant and immoral multi-billion-dollar military threat,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto said in his address.

“We would like to thank the governments and peoples of the world, including from the United States, for denouncing this attempt to wage war,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has deployed eight warships and a nuclear-powered submarine to the southern Caribbean as part of a stated plan to combat drug trafficking. US forces have destroyed at least three suspected drug boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing over a dozen people in a move decried as “extrajudicial execution” by UN experts.