Venezuela sends letter to UN Security Council, condemning US armed aggression

UNITED NATIONS -- The Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations on Saturday sent a letter to Abukar Dahir Osman, president of the Security Council for January, condemning "brutal, unjustified and unilateral" US armed attacks against the South American nation.

The letter also put forward four demands: an urgent Security Council meeting to discuss the US aggression, a strong condemnation of the aggression against Venezuela, an immediate halt to US military attacks, and measures to hold Washington accountable for its "crime of aggression."

US military forces bombed civilian and military sites in the capital of Caracas and other cities in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira earlier Saturday, and carried out attacks across the country with helicopters and airplanes, it said.

The letter noted that the attacks constituted a flagrant act of aggression that is premeditated, acknowledged and publicized by Washington, and that they "flagrantly" violated the UN Charter.

The US attack was carried out against a country in full peace, it said, noting that it aims at toppling the current Venezuelan regime and imposing a "puppet government" to plunder the country's oil resources.