Image: Members of the UN security council meet in New York, on Monday, on the US strikes and capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

The US has faced widespread condemnation for a “crime of aggression” in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council.

Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among the countries on Monday that denounced Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch its leader, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to stand trial in the US.

“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” Sérgio França Danese, the Brazilian ambassador to the UN, told the meeting. “These acts constitute a very serious affront to the sovereignty of Venezuela and set an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”

Trump’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war.

The meeting in New York was convened just hours before Maduro was due to appear before a federal judge in Manhattan on charges including “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation and weapons trafficking – allegations he has long denied.

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