Denver — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement:
“As I have long said, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is an illegitimate, brutal leader who lost, and then stole, the 2024 elections. Nevertheless, as a member of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, I have seen no evidence justifying the administration acting alone without Congressional authorization. I certainly have seen no justification for putting U.S. troops on the ground to ‘run the country’ or rebuild and exploit Venezuela’s oil infrastructure for our own economic purposes.
“The President’s top advisors describe today’s actions as a ‘law enforcement exercise.’ But today’s unprecedented use of military force and the President’s suggestion for the United States to run Venezuela are dangerously far beyond that. President Trump’s continued abandonment of basic principles of international law and order eventually will reverberate against America’s national interests; the only question is when.
“The Trump administration’s Venezuelan misadventure sets a precedent for authoritarian regimes around the world to intervene militarily under the guise of going after leaders accused of criminal conduct or simply to access valuable natural resources or critical technologies under their control.
“Last November, I voted for a bipartisan Senate resolution to prevent President Trump from pursuing an unauthorized war with Venezuela, a resolution most Republicans blocked. And, just last month, I voted against the National Defense Authorization Act because, as I said at the time, I ‘could not, in good conscience, rubber-stamp President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s lawless Department of Defense.’
“After pardoning Honduras’s former President Juan Orlando Hernández for drug-related crimes, and having repeatedly invoked oil as a justification for strikes on Venezuela, the administration’s claims that the Department of Defense was merely providing support to serve a federal indictment against Maduro are just one more demonstration of this White House’s incoherence and hypocrisy.
“The Venezuelan people deserve to thrive under a democratically-elected government. But the Trump administration’s trampling of our Constitution and unauthorized military action serve only to weaken U.S. democracy and make the world more dangerous. Congress must reassert its role in these decisions to prevent the President from his continued irresponsible conduct.”