Senate advances bipartisan bid to curb Trump’s military actions in Venezuela after Maduro capture
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday cleared a key procedural hurdle on a resolution to rein in President Donald Trump’s military actions in Venezuela, a rare bipartisan rebuke that follows alarm over the secretive capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
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The Democratic-led measure, which would bar further U.S. hostilities against Venezuela without explicit congressional authorization, advanced with the support of five Republicans. A final vote is expected next week and is widely seen as a formality in the chamber, even as the effort faces a steep climb in the House and almost no prospect of surviving a likely veto by Trump.
Despite its uncertain fate, the push marks one of Congress’s most forceful assertions of its war-making authority in decades, setting up a confrontation with the White House over constitutional limits at a moment of fast-moving developments in Caracas.
“Less than courageous members of Congress fall all over themselves to avoid taking responsibility, to avoid the momentous vote of declaring war,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who broke with much of his party to co-sponsor the measure. “But make no mistake, bombing another nation’s capital and removing their leader is an act of war, plain and simple. No provision in the Constitution provides such power to the presidency.”
Trump blasted the Republicans who crossed him, singling them out on social media and warning, “Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.” He added, “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United States of America.”
Democratic leaders framed the resolution as a constitutional line in the sand after what they called months of misleading briefings from administration officials, including assurances as recently as November that there were no plans for strikes on Venezuelan soil. The administration has argued the Maduro operation was legally justified as part of a broader campaign against transnational drug trafficking, characterizing it as a fight against cartels designated as terrorist organizations.
Republican leaders largely defended the president’s latitude to direct limited military action to protect U.S. national security. “This is something that should have taken place, probably in a previous administration,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. “Only President Trump had the backbone to pull it off, to pull out an indicted, illegitimate president that was holding Venezuela hostage.”
War powers measures aimed at Venezuela have twice been rejected in the Senate and twice in the House since Trump returned to office. Over the last century, only one congressional statute has imposed a broad, lasting limit on unilateral presidential military action abroad: the War Powers Resolution of 1973, passed over President Richard Nixon’s veto.
In Venezuela: Prisoner releases follow Maduro’s ouster
Inside Venezuela, authorities are releasing a “large number” of prisoners, including some foreign nationals, five days after U.S. forces ousted Maduro, according to parliament speaker Jorge Rodríguez. He described the move as a “unilateral gesture,” the first sign of potential concessions by the interim government since the Trump administration said it was “in charge” in Venezuela.
Rodríguez did not specify how many people are being released. The non-governmental monitor Foro Penal says 806 political prisoners are held in Venezuela, including 175 military personnel. Trump said Tuesday that Venezuelan authorities were “closing up” a “torture chamber in the middle of Caracas,” without elaborating.
Next week’s expected Senate passage would send the war powers resolution to the House, where leadership has signaled skepticism and the White House has vowed a veto. Even if the measure proves symbolic, the vote underscores Congress’s renewed appetite to test presidential power — and sets the stage for a defining clash over who decides when the United States goes to war as the situation on the ground in Venezuela continues to shift.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
