South Africa’s representative at the UN Security Council condemns the U.S. raid in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife as a flagrant breach of the UN Charter’s core principles of sovereign equality and the prohibition on the use of force, warning that such unilateral military action revives a “might makes right” order reminiscent of the pre‑UN era. Citing Libya, Iraq and past interventions in Africa, the envoy insists that even serious allegations against a head of state cannot justify cross‑border law‑enforcement operations without consent, urges that Venezuela’s crisis be resolved only through peaceful, Venezuelan‑led processes and existing international legal mechanisms, and cautions that failing to defend any nation’s sovereignty endangers the security and self‑determination of all UN members.