The Americans against Trump – Maduro arrest is an ‘act of war’, they say

A large protest was held dowtown Chicago after President Donald Trump said the U.S. attacked Venezuela and captured Pres. Nicolás Maduro
Photo: abc7chicago.com

House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement saying Trump’s plan to have the U.S. temporarily “run” Venezuela until there’s “proper” transition into new leadership is “unacceptable,” ‘The New York Post’ reports.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani ripped the Trump administration over the U.S military’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, condemning the act as an overly aggressive “act of war.”

The socialist pol said he called President Trump personally to let him know he vehemently opposed the arrest of the notorious dictator and his wife Cilia Flores – who’ve been fugitives since 2020 — on narcoterrorism charges.

“I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act, and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal international law, and a desire to see that be consistent each and every day,” Mamdani told reporters during an unrelated Brooklyn news conference

Mamdani slammed the raid hours earlier after being briefed by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other city honchos on the planned NYC imprisonment of Maduro and Flores.

“Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,” he said.

“This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home.”

New York
Photo: NBC News

Socialist “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, suggested that illegal drug trafficking, which Trump has said results in 300,000 U.S deaths a year, was not the real motive for the raid.

“It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month,” the Queens native wrote, “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.”

Democrats are furious over President Donald Trump’s overnight strike in Venezuela

The president’s latest show of force on the world stage, which Trump says saw the U.S. military capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, quickly united rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers behind one message: They say the White House illegally bypassed Congress and has no plan for the chaotic aftermath of war, POLITICO writes.

“Congress did not authorize this war,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) wrote. “Venezuela posed no imminent threat to the United States. This is reckless, elective regime change risking American lives (Iraq 2.0) with no plan for the day after. Wars cost more than trophies.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced he would again force the chamber to vote on his effort to constrain Trump’s war powers next week.

“Where will this go next?” he wrote. “Will the President deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorization from people’s elected legislature before putting servicemembers at risk.”

In addition to the murky legal justification, several Democrats said the move is an about-face for administration officials who they said argued regime change wasn’t the end goal of the administration’s aggressive military campaign in Latin America.

“Secretaries Rubio and [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,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said. “Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a combat veteran who deployed to Iraq as an infantryman in 2005, wrote that “the American people did not ask for this.”

And he wondered aloud about what comes next for the South American country, asking “so who is in charge of Venezuela now?”

Trump addressed the emerging Democratic criticism in a Fox News interview where he said “all they do is complain.”

“They should say, ‘Great job,’” he said. “They shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’ You know, the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years.”

“Millions of Americans voted in the last Presidential election to end frivolous conflicts and unnecessary foreign wars,” said Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), an Armed Services Committee member, in a statement. “This escalation of hostilities against Venezuela and the capture of a foreign leader without congressional authorization goes against the will of the Americans who put the president in power.”

A December Quinnipiac poll found that Americans overwhelmingly oppose military action against Venezuela, with just 25 percent of respondents saying they supported an intervention inside the country. Even the White House’s strategy of targeting boats with alleged drug traffickers proved broadly unpopular.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs