HAMILTON, Canada

The US at the UN Security Council on Monday defended its latest military action against Venezuela that resulted in the capture of the country's President Nicolas Maduro, saying it was "not occupying" the country.

"This past weekend, colleagues, the United States successfully carried out a surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the US military against two indicted fugitives of American justice, narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores," US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, told an emergency session.

Citing Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent remarks that "there is no war against Venezuela or its people," Waltz told the Security Council that the US is "not occupying a country."

"This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades," he said, recalling the similar military operation taken against Panama's de facto ruler, Gen. Manuel Noriega,
in 1989.

Arguing that the US military action was aimed to "protect Americans at home and abroad," Waltz said: "If the UN and the United Nations and this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist and the same treatment in this charter of a democratically elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?"

Saying that Washington will not "allow the Western Hemisphere to be used as a base of operation for our nation’s adversaries, and competitors, and rivals," the US envoy said: "You can't turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Hezbollah, for gangs, for the Cuban intelligence agents and other malign actors that control that country."

"You cannot continue to have the largest energy reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States, under the control of illegitimate leaders, and not benefiting the people of Venezuela, and stolen by a handful of oligarchs inside of Venezuela," he added.