The U.S. military has maintained a more pronounced presence off the coast of the country during the past several months, deploying three warships in August. Criminal organizations in Latin America were categorized as terrorist organizations. There have been military strikes conducted against boats that the Trump administration alleged to be smuggling drugs. The U.S. began seizing sanctioned oil tankers.
But was “Operation Absolute Resolve,” necessary and was it constitutional?
It may depend on who’s answering.
“I think right now we're at a situation to where there was already regional instability with Maduro serving as the president,” said Republican Congressman Michael Guest of Mississippi’s Third District. “I think history will judge whether or not the actions of [President Trump] were in the best interests of the United States. I believe clearly as we sit here today that they are.”
Rep. Guest serves as Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. He said feedback on the operation he’s received from constituents have been split, with half supporting President Trump's decision and believing
“We've also had roughly the other half of the calls being opposed to this,” he said. “The main opposition that we've heard is that they felt like Congress should have been consulted before the president took the actions that he did. But look, nobody has called our office and said that Maduro was a good guy, that Maduro is innocent.”
Maduro has pleaded not guilty to federal weapons, narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracy charges. The Trump administration has accused him of being a dictator and the president has spoken out against Maduro for years. The Department of Justice previously indicted him on drug-trafficking charges in 2020.
Venezuelan authorities have said that at least 100 people were killed during the operation, a number that includes both Venezuelan and Cuban officers and Venezuelan civilians.
“I think the United States did a very surgical strike,” said Guest. “They did everything within their ability to limit the casualties on the ground. I know that some of those individuals that were killed, or I have read reports of some of the individuals killed, were actually Cuban soldiers who were sent to try to prop up the Maduro regime.”
Guest indicated his intention not to support a war powers resolution that would determine the need for congressional oversight regarding future military operations in Venezuela. Five Republican senators voted in favor of advancing the act.
However, in a statement Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker applauded the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela, writing “Nicolas Maduro, an illegitimate dictator, would no longer be able to oppress the people of Venezuela or threaten the United States.”
Wicker, who is Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also called out the expanded influence he believes Iran and Russia have gained in a hemisphere so essential and so close to the United States, writing that without a dramatic change “this trend would continue.”
“Instead of letting these problems fester, we are giving change a chance in Venezuela and elsewhere,” he wrote. “Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador are taking hopeful steps toward freer markets and people. Perhaps Venezuela can join its neighbors. At the very least, the world now sees that China, Russia, and Iran are unreliable partners in a pinch. Today, we are now enforcing the sanctions that Beijing and Moscow previously helped Venezuela evade.”
Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi’s second district, however, supports the war powers resolution, calling the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela unconstitutional.
“There's no question. There is a place for Congress and its participation,” he said. “Its advice and consent is key and this president totally ignores that.”
Thompson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the Constitution and subsequent legislation provides a clear pathway for the president to follow and believes that the Trump administration is more focused on Venezuela’s resources.
On Friday, President Trump held a meeting with oil executives at the White House and his administration has been vocal about its desire for political overhaul in other Latin American countries, including Cuba.
Thompson said he was in support of diplomatic efforts to strengthen the region, emphasizing that previous envoys he took to Cuba resulted in better opportunities for his district.
“My trip to Cuba was to help create an economy for the constituents that I represent,” Thompson said. “While I was there, I toured the Cuban medical school and created a program where anybody in the United States who wanted to go to school and become a doctor could go there free if they agreed to come back and work in an underserved community. I'm happy to say that we have over 200 doctors who got a free education in Cuba who are now seeing people all over the United States.”
The Trump administration has indicated that the president will likely veto the war powers resolution if it arrives on his desk.
