Geneva, Switzerland – Four UN rights experts on Wednesday condemned the US blockade of Venezuela, determining it illegal armed aggression and calling on Congress to intervene.

President Donald Trump‘s administration has deployed a major military force in the Caribbean and has been seizing oil tankers as part of a blockade on Venezuelan vessels it considers to be under sanctions.

But UN experts torched the justification, writing in a joint statement: “There is no right to enforce unilateral sanctions through an armed blockade.”

A blockade is a prohibited use of military force against another country under the UN Charter, while US actions are “such a serious use of force that [they are] also expressly recognized as illegal armed aggression under the General Assembly’s 1974 Definition of Aggression,” they said.

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Under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Venezuela has “a right of self-defense,” the experts added.

Trump’s administration has accused Venezuela of using oil to finance “narcoterrorism, human trafficking, murders, and kidnappings.”

Caracas denies any involvement in drug trafficking. It says Trump is seeking to overthrow its president, Nicolas Maduro, in order to seize Venezuelan oil reserves, the largest in the world.