Lorraine Williamson
The Spain Venezuela UN row has burst into the centre of European diplomacy, just as leaders gather in Paris to talk about Ukraine. Spain is urging partners to say, clearly and publicly, that Washington’s military action in Venezuela crossed a line — and that rules on sovereignty still matter when the world’s most powerful country breaks them.
Madrid’s frustration is aimed at two targets at once: the United States for the operation itself, and European capitals for what Spain sees as cautious, blurred language. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is using the Paris summit — hosted by Emmanuel Macron — to argue that Europe’s response to Venezuela will shape what happens next, including fears that Trump could test boundaries elsewhere.
What Spain told the UN Security Council
Spain took its case to the United Nations. At an emergency Security Council meeting on Monday, 5 January, Spain’s ambassador, Héctor Gómez Hernández, warned that the US intervention set “a very worrying precedent” for peace and regional security, stressing that Venezuela’s natural resources are part of its sovereignty. Spain’s message was blunt: international cooperation against organised crime matters, but it cannot be pursued through unilateral force.
That stance is reinforced by a joint declaration dated 4 January from Spain, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. The communiqué rejects unilateral military action in Venezuela and calls for a Venezuelan-led, inclusive political process, framed around the UN Charter’s principles on sovereignty and the non-use of force.
What Brussels has said — and why Madrid still isn’t happy
The European Union has responded, but in a way that helps explain Spain’s irritation. In a statement backed by 26 member states (with Hungary absent), the EU called for calm and restraint, underlined the need to uphold international law and the UN Charter, and repeated its position that Maduro lacks democratic legitimacy. But it stops short of an outright condemnation of the US operation.
This is the gap Spain is trying to close: Madrid wants Europe to say the method matters, even when the target is a government it has long criticised.
Paris summit: Ukraine in public, Venezuela in the corridors
Sánchez’s trip to Paris is officially about Ukraine — the “Coalition of the Willing” summit is focused on security guarantees and binding commitments designed to deter future Russian aggression. The Elysée diary lists meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the summit itself today, Tuesday, 6 January.
But Venezuela is hanging over everything. Reuters and other outlets report growing anxiety among allies about what the intervention signals — and whether a precedent is being set for powerful states to act first and justify later.
It is also feeding a broader European alarm about Greenland. Sánchez has folded these threads together in his public messaging, calling respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity “non-negotiable” — “from Ukraine to Gaza, including Venezuela” — and voicing solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.
Why this matters inside Spain
The Venezuela crisis is not a distant theatre for Madrid. Spain has become one of the main destinations for Venezuelans fleeing political and economic turmoil, and the community is large enough to make any shift in policy feel immediate — socially, politically and emotionally. El País, citing Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), put the number of Venezuelans living in Spain at over 400,000 at the beginning of 2025 (the latest figure referenced).
That context helps explain why the government is trying to balance two positions at once: it does not recognise Maduro’s democratic legitimacy, but it is also arguing that regime change by foreign force is a dangerous road — one that risks instability and blowback across Latin America.
The diplomatic road ahead
Spain’s next move is clear: keep the pressure on European partners to sharpen their language, and keep using the UN as the main stage for the legal argument. Whether that succeeds may depend on how far other capitals are willing to go in confronting Washington — and how much the Greenland issue, and the wider Ukraine negotiations, raise the stakes for unity.
For Sánchez, Paris is a test of whether Europe can still speak with one voice when the pressure comes from an ally, not an adversary.
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