Democrats from Los Angeles County’s congressional delegation are expressing outrage at the U.S. military action in Venezuela, taking aim at President Donald Trump for not informing Congress before launching Saturday’s raid in which that country’s president was captured by the U.S. military.
“The president has lost his mind. There was no approval from Congress, let alone any notification,” said Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina. “(Nicolás) 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. The administration must immediately brief Congress on the legal justification for the kidnapping as well as a plan to maintain regional stability.”
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia and member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, also slammed Trump’s action Saturday.
“The self-proclaimed president of peace has once again resorted to war. 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,” she said.
“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. 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 added.
“What the hell is going on?” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, posted Saturday morning on X. “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? 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?”
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 — this is not about drugs.”
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, wrote on X that “President Trump just bombed Venezuela and arrested its leader without any explanation to the American people and without authorization from Congress. Americans do not want another foreign regime change war launched in secret and without accountability. And Trump is setting an example to the world that it is acceptable for countries to unilaterally overthrow sovereign leaders.
“Congress must rein in this administration and stop it from dragging our country into another endless, unauthorized war,” Chu added.
“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. George Whitesides, D-Santa Clarita, also took the president to task for not informing Congress.
“This morning, my thoughts are with the brave men and women of our armed forces, particularly those who were wounded in last night’s operation. Fidelity to our Constitution is our most sacred national value. The administration’s actions last night in Venezuela were taken without consulting Congress, Whitesides said.
“Let’s be clear: Maduro is a criminal who has destroyed his country. But we cannot claim to uphold the rule of law while bypassing it. Article I of the Constitution is clear: the power to declare war and make rules regarding captures belongs to Congress, not the president. The Founding Fathers explicitly designed our system to prevent one person from holding the sole power to initiate conflict.
“Despite my repeated requests for clarity during classified Armed Forces Committee hearings — and despite Secretary of State Rubio’s pledge to seek authorization — the administration has stonewalled Congress at every turn,” Whitesides continued. “This sets a dangerous precedent. If the United States asserts the right to unilaterally remove a foreign head of state on a domestic charge, we erode our moral standing to stop adversaries like Vladimir Putin from doing the same to leaders like Ukrainian president Zelensky, or China from detaining the president of Taiwan.
“Congress returns to D.C. this week, where I expect to receive more information about the administration’s decision to strike.”
California’s two Democratic senators also weighed in.
“Let’s be absolutely clear: Trump’s military action in Venezuela is unlawful without approval from Congress. There’s no clear objective, no endgame, and no plan for what comes next. This is a dangerous recipe for chaos in the region,” Sen. Alex Padilla wrote.
“Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and forcing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation,” Sen. Adam Schiff wrote.
But Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, expressed support for the decision.
“Maduro was a brutal dictator and indicted narco-terrorist responsible for flooding our country with deadly drugs and contributing to countless American deaths,” she said early Saturday. “The Venezuelan people have suffered under his illegitimate rule for long enough. I’m glad he will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and look forward to hearing more from the administration in the coming days and hours.”
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 Friday and early Saturday.
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 Saturday, 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 selling the oil to other nations, including China and Russia.
Venezuela contains the world’s largest proven oil reserves and used to be among its largest oil producers, but its production has fall off drastically in the last couple decades.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Saturday 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.
Local activist groups planned hastily arranged protests in Los Angeles on Saturday. At noon, Union del Barrio, the Community Self Defense Coalition and other organizations were expected to denounce the U.S. attack. And at 2 p.m., CodePink and other organizations planned an “emergency protest” at Pershing Square.