Republicans cheer capture of Venezuelan leader, but Democrats say it ‘risks pulling our nation into another war’
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been indicted in the southern district of New York on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a statement: “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization that has taken control of the country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States.”
Many specialists are skeptical of the narco-terror description when it comes to Cartel de los Soles. Venezuela has a distinctly different landscape from Mexico when it comes to cartels.
But JD Vance, the US vice-president, said in a statement: “The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says. Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”
Reaction from Democrats criticized the administration for transforming what had been an anti-narcotics trafficking operation in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which included strikes against alleged drug boats, into a regime-change action.
US senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who serves as vice-chair of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said the US constitution “places the gravest decisions about the use of military force in the hands of Congress for a reason. Using military force to enact regime change demands the closest scrutiny, precisely because the consequences do not end with the initial strike.”
He added: “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership? What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, forcefully pushed back against the actions.
Hochul wrote on X that the strikes were “a flagrant abuse of power by acting without congressional approval”.
“New York is home to a vibrant Venezuelan community, and I stand with families here and abroad in their hopes for a better, more stable future,” Hochul added.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested that illegal drug trafficking was not the real motive for the attack. “It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month,” she wrote on X. “It’s about oil and regime change.
“And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare costs,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Congressman Gregory Meeks, a Democratic member of the House foreign affairs committee, said that Maduro was “an illegitimate leader” but “using the US military to attempt regime change in a sovereign foreign nation, without approval from Congress, without a defined objective or plan for the day after, and without support from our allies, risks entangling the United States in an open-ended conflict in Venezuela that could destabilize the entire region”.
The New Hampshire senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said Maduro was “a tyrant who repressed Venezuelans and aligned with our adversaries” but “today’s drastic military operation by President Trump on Venezuelan soil is entirely inconsistent with what [Trump’s] cabinet repeatedly briefed to Congress and goes against the expressed wishes of the American people”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is retiring from Congress next week, said on X she was “100% for strong safe secure borders and stopping narco terrorists and cartels from trafficking deadly drugs and human trafficking into America” but “if US military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs then why hasn’t the Trump admin taken action against Mexican cartels?”
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Greene pointed to the Trump-issued pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez as an example of a contradiction of the US president’s policies, adding: “Americans’ disgust with our own government’s never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going.”
New Jersey senator Andy Kim posted on X that Rubio and the US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, “looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.”
Kim accused Trump of rejecting a “constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war”.
Kim, a former state department employee during the Obama administration, said the overnight attack in Venezuela “doesn’t represent strength. It’s not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the US government.”
California Democrat Ro Khanna accused Trump of betraying his Maga base by “launching a war of choice to bring regime change in Venezuela. We keep voting against dumb wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, & Libya. But our Presidents bow to a foreign policy blob committed to militarism.”
Khanna said the administration was getting the US “entangled in conflicts abroad, while ignoring the lack of good jobs and high costs for Americans at home. What will we say now if [Chinese president] Xi Jinping wants to capture [President] Lai [Ching-te] of Taiwan or Putin tries to capture Zelensky in Ukraine?”
He called “for a movement of the American people to stand against bloated defense budgets and warmongering. We need statesmen who will heed the advice of Washington and our founders and invest in jobs, healthcare, childcare & education for our people.”
Tiziano Breda, an analyst for Latin America at the global conflict monitor ACLED, said the US strikes targeting military facilities in Caracas, as well as sites in La Guaira, Aragua and Miranda, “stands out as the largest US military operation in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama”:
“The timing is not a coincidence – it appears to be aimed at undercutting the anniversary of Maduro’s most recent term in office,” Breda said via email, warning that what happens next hinges on the response of Venezuela’s government and armed forces.
“So far, they’ve avoided direct confrontation with US forces, but deployments on the streets point to efforts to contain unrest. A smooth transition remains unlikely, and the risk of resistance from pro-regime armed groups – including elements within the military and Colombian rebel networks active in the country – remains high.”
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