State Department warns US citizens to leave Venezuela

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, speaking to the United Nations Security Council on Monday regarding the U.S. strikes on Venezuela and capture of its president, said the U.S. is "not occupying a country."

"This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades," Waltz said. "The United States arrested a narco-trafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he's committed against our people for 15 years."

Waltz also said the U.S. would not "allow the western hemisphere to be used as a base of operation for our nation's adversaries and competitors and rivals of the United States.”

The U.S. ambassador to the UN also said that President Donald Trump offered Nicolas Maduro "multiple off-ramps" and "gave diplomacy a chance."

"He tried to deescalate. Maduro refused to take them," he said. "President Trump made it clear that the narco-terrorism must stop, and yet it continued. The United States will not waver in our actions to protect Americans from the scourge of narco-terrorism and seeks peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela."

The UN Security Council meeting is ongoing.

-ABC News' Mike Pappano and Brianna Sanchez

Nicolas Maduro has retained Barry Pollack, according to a notice on the court docket posted Monday.

The notice did not say when Pollack was retained or how he might be getting paid. Maduro's finances are expected to be addressed during his initial appearance on Monday. Pollack previously represented, among others, Julian Assange.

A Texas lawyer, Mark Donnelly, is representing the wife of Nicolas Maduro, according to a notice filed Monday with the court. He applied for pro hac vice admission to represent Cilia Flores during her prosecution in New York.

The notice does not say when Donnelly was retained or how he will be paid.

Donnelly and Pollack have not returned messages from ABC News seeking comment.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday condemned what he called "unilateral hegemonic bullying" in his first public comments since the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Speaking after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Beijing, Xi did not mention the U.S. by name, but appeared to be referencing the weekend assault on Venezuela and the seizure of the country's President Nicolas Maduro.

"The world today is fraught with turmoil, and unilateral hegemonic bullying is severely impacting the international order," Xi said, according to remarks published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"All countries should respect the development paths chosen independently by the people of other countries, abide by international law and the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, with major powers taking the lead," Xi added.

ABC News' Karson Yiu

President Donald Trump, who has said the operation against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro should serve as a warning to the rest of the world, doubled down on his threats, implying that Colombian President Gustavo Petro could face U.S. action soon.

“Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long. Let me tell you,” Trump claimed while speaking to reporters on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, Petro released a statement on the operation and Trump's previous comments about him, saying, "I deeply reject Trump speaking without knowing; my name does not appear in the judicial files on drug trafficking over 50 years, neither from before nor from the present."

"Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump. That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people’s struggle for Peace in Colombia," he added.

Reporters asked Trump if the U.S. has a similar plan to deal with Cuba as they did for Venezuela, to which he said that Cuba only survived because of Venezuela.

“Now, they won't have that money coming in. They won't have the income coming in. You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday, you know that a lot of Cubans were killed,” Trump said.

Trump said those Cubans were trying to protect Maduro.

Later, the president said that Cuba is “ready to fall.”

“Cuba looks like it's ready to fall. I don't know how they -- if they're going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income,” Trump said. “They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They're not getting any of it. And Cuba literally is ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are going to be very happy about this.”

Asked again if the U.S. is considering action in Cuba, the president said he doesn’t think there needs to be any because “it looks like it’s going down.”

-ABC News' Meghan Mistry and Hannah Demissie