‘Is this a power grab’

Staff and Wire Reports

LOS ANGELES — Democrats from Los Angeles County’s congressional delegation expressed outrage at the U.S. military action in Venezuela, taking aim at President Donald Trump for not informing Congress before launching a raid in which that country’s president was captured by the U.S. military Jan. 3.

“What the hell is going on?” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, posted on X Jan. 3. “Trump has supposedly abducted President Maduro and his wife and brought them to the United States for trial, supposedly for drug trafficking and bringing drugs to the United States. It was just a few weeks ago when Trump pardoned one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world, Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who had been convicted by the Biden administration and was serving a sentence of 45 years in prison.

“What is this?” Waters asked. “Is this about regime change? Is this about oil? Or is this a power play to continue to send a message around the world that Trump is all-powerful and he is headed towards dictatorship in our country?”

U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia and a member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, slammed Trump’s action.

“The self-proclaimed president of peace has once again resorted to war,” Kamlager-Dove said. “After months of conducting extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, this rogue president has just escalated his illegal campaign by carrying out military strikes in Venezuela without any declaration of war or authorization of military force from Congress.

“President Trump has not offered the American people any clear strategic objective for a U.S. invasion of Venezuela except to take over its oil reserves. Trump has repeatedly lied to Congress about his intentions — an evasion of accountability that has led the U.S. into prolonged military conflicts before,” Kamlager-Dove added. “These military operations are a return to the same failed playbook of Cold War-era interventionism and regime change that decades later still hangs over — and will now re-poison — U.S. engagement in the region. And it emboldens autocrats around the world who can argue that invasions are an acceptable tool of foreign policy.

“The American people do not want to be dragged into another war. The Trump administration must immediately come before Congress to face accountability for the lack of legal authority and articulate their plan — if any — for what comes next,” Kamlager-Dove said.

After months of escalating tensions in which the U.S. conducted deadly strikes against alleged drug boats from Venezuela, seized an oil tanker and ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers, the U.S. military launched the large-scale operation in Caracas overnight Jan. 2 and 3.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is under federal indictment in the United States for allegedly running a cartel that has funneled drugs into the U.S., and his wife were taken from their home and were being transported to New York to face charges.

At a news conference Jan. 3, Trump said the United States would “be running” Venezuela indefinitely until a “judicious” transfer of power could take place. He added that the United States would be taking over the country’s oil fields, increasing production and allowing U.S. oil companies to sell the oil to other nations, including China and Russia.

“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said. “We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country.”

Trump accused Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores of a “campaign of deadly narco-terrorism against the United States and its citizens.”

The president said previous U.S. strikes on drug boats had knocked out 97% of drugs coming into the United States by sea, “and those drugs mostly come from a place called Venezuela.”

He added that each alleged drug boat was responsible for “on average 25,000 deaths.”

Venezuela contains the world’s largest proven oil reserves and used to be among its largest oil producers, but its production has fallen off drastically in the last couple of decades.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the nature of the military operation, which officials planned for days but waited to launch until weather conditions were ideal, did not allow for congressional notification. Trump added that Congress was known to leak information, and that could have jeopardized the mission.

The Constitution grants Congress the sole power to formally declare war. In 1973, an attempt to further codify its control of military excursions amid the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution. That act says the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing armed forces into hostilities, and troops must be removed within 60-90 days if Congress doesn’t authorize the action.

Since then, presidents have occasionally skirted the act, citing various exigencies, and its effectiveness continues to be debated.

In a statement, Waters hinted at voting to impeach Trump for bypassing Congress.

“During Donald Trump’s first term, I called for his impeachment under then Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” Waters said. “He was impeached twice, yet escaped accountability due to a lack of Republican support.

“Today, many Democrats have understandably questioned whether impeachment is possible again under the current political reality,” Waters added. “I am reconsidering that view. Even if Republicans refuse to act, Democrats cannot remain silent or passive in the face of actions this extreme from this Administration.” 

Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-San Pedro, called Maduro “a bully” who has “long stood against American principles,” but added “that does not give the president of the United States the right to storm into another country, without congressional approval, and risk the lives of millions of Americans for his own greed and ambition.

“And make no mistake, this president pardoned his criminal crony, a convicted drug trafficker from Honduras just last month who helped supply cocaine to the United States,” Barragan added. “This is not about drugs.”

Other Southland Democrats were equally opposed to Trump’s action.

“The president has lost his mind,” said U.S. Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina. “There was no approval from Congress, let alone any notification.

“Maduro is an illegitimate leader, but what was the justification for kidnapping him and his wife? This shortsighted and reckless attack continues to feed the president’s goal of regime change and controlling Venezuelan oil, no matter the cost. This administration has continued to lie, bypass Congress and the American people, and act unilaterally without authorization,” Cisneros added. “The administration must immediately brief Congress on the legal justification for the kidnapping as well as a plan to maintain regional stability.”

“This military action is illegal without congressional authorization,” wrote Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles. “That is why I supported War Powers resolutions last month to prevent exactly this kind of unchecked use of force, resolutions that House Republicans blocked.”

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Whittier, issued a statement that blasted the president for not informing Congress prior to taking action. “The Constitution is clear: The power to authorize military actions belongs to Congress,” Sanchez said. “No president has the authority to unilaterally launch military action simply because they believe it is justified. All members of Congress have a duty to call out President Trump’s blatant violation of our Constitution. I hope my Republican colleagues will do the same.

“Serious questions remain unanswered,” Sanchez added. “Will the president’s illegal military actions end with Venezuela or will our military be used to also go after legitimate, democratically elected leaders in Latin America, as he has threatened with Mexico’s President Sheinbaum?

“Was this military operation solely motivated to extract Venezuelan oil for American companies as the president repeatedly alluded to in his press conference? And what will prevent this from becoming another endless war that the American people do not want?”

Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in a federal courthouse in New York Jan. 5. He and his wife remain in custody.