This is a presentation by Jeffrey Sachs, President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, to the UN Security Council hearing on Venezuela on 5 January 2026. Mr President, distinguished members of the Security Council. The issue before the Council today is not the character of the government of Venezuela.
The issue is whether any member state, by force, coercion, or economic strangulation, has the right to determine Venezuela’s political future or to exercise control over its affairs. This question goes directly to Article 2, Section 4 of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The Council must decide whether that prohibition is to be upheld or abandoned.
Abandoning it would carry consequences of the gravest kind. Since 1947, the United States’ foreign policy has repeatedly employed force, covert action, and political manipulation to bring about regime change in other countries. This is a matter of carefully documented historical record.
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In her book, Covert Regime Change, political scientist Lindsey O’Rourke documents 70 attempted US regime change operations between 1947 and 1989 alone. These practices did not end with the Cold War. Since 1989, major United States regime change operations undertaken without authorisation by the Security Council have included, among the most consequential, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria beginning in 2011, Honduras 2009, Ukraine 2014 and Venezuela from 2002 onward. The methods employed are well established and well documented.
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