The high-profile capture of Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces has sparked a firestorm of controversy, both at home and abroad. Domestically, Democrats are crying, “Foul,” framing President Donald Trump’s Venezuelan raid as a violation of both his constitutional authorities as president and international law. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) claimed in a Sunday interview that there was “no evidence” that Maduro’s regime posed “an imminent threat to the health, the safety, the well-being, the national security of the American people.”

“This was not simply a counter-narcotics operation. It was an act of war,” Jeffries argued. “This was a military action involving Delta Force, involving the Army, apparently involving thousands of troops, involving at least 150 military aircraft, perhaps involving dozens of ships off the coast of Venezuela and South America. So, of course, this was the military action,” he continued. “And pursuant to the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war, to authorize acts that take place in this regard. And we’ve got to make sure when we return to Washington, D.C., that legislative action is taken to ensure that no further military steps occur absent explicit congressional approval.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that he and Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), along with frequent Trump critic Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), will introduce legislation this week to bar the commander in chief from further military action without congressional approval. “It’s a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress,” the top Democrat said in an interview Sunday. He shared that his “War Powers Act” will be brought to the Senate floor this week. “It’s going to come to the floor this week, and if it is voted for, if it’s voted positively in both houses, then the president can’t do another thing in Venezuela without the okay of Congress.”

“The American people this morning,” Schumer claimed, “are scratching their heads in wonderment and in fear of what the president has proposed. The United States will run Venezuela. We have learned through the years when America tries to do regime change and nation building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars.” He continued, “The American people are worried that this is creating an endless war. The very thing that Donald Trump campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars. And right now, we’re headed right into one with no barriers, with no discussion. This is reckless.”

Likewise, Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) disparaged the raid on Venezuela as “wildly illegal.” “This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn into office, stealing from the American people, seizing spending power. What’s illegal now? Dragging America into a war overseas,” the senator claimed. “The president cannot run a military operation of this size, cannot invade a foreign country without coming to Congress first, without allowing the American public to weigh in. America doesn’t want this war. Nobody asked for this because it has nothing to do with American national security.”

Murphy further averred that Maduro and his regime are “not a security threat to the United States. They’re not threatening to invade us. There is no terrorist group like al-Qaeda operating there that has plans to attack the United States.” He continued, “To the extent that you care about the drug trade, yes, they produce drugs, but those drugs go to Europe. Fentanyl is the drug that’s killing Americans. That’s not coming from Venezuela. Venezuela produces cocaine.”

In a lengthy social media post, Vice President J.D. Vance responded to the claim that Venezuela is not responsible for drug trafficking into the U.S. “First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was). Second, cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels,” he explained. “If you cut out the money from cocaine (or even reduce it) you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too!”

Vance also addressed claims that the U.S. was targeting Venezuela in order to obtain the Latin American country’s massive oil reserves. “About 20 years ago, Venezuela expropriated American oil property and until recently used that stolen property to get rich and fund their narcoterrorist activities,” he recounted. “I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing? Great powers don’t act like that. The United States, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, is a great power again.”

The president and other Trump administration officials have likewise defended the raid on Venezuela. In a press conference Saturday announcing Maduro’s capture, the president asserted, “This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”

He continued to note that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had previously been indicted in the U.S. Southern District of New York for crimes against the U.S., including drug trafficking. “The illegitimate dictator Maduro was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States. As alleged in the indictment, he personally oversaw the vicious cartel known as Cartel de los Soles, which flooded our nation with lethal poison, responsible for the deaths of countless Americans,” Trump expounded, touting the “overwhelming evidence” to be presented against the Maduros in court. “Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil.”

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. So we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in,” the president added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We’ve had decades of that. We’re not going to let that happen.”

Trump also addressed the issue of Venezuelan oil, calling the Venezuelan oil industry “a total bust.” According to the president, U.S. oil companies will invest in Venezuela’s oil production facilities to “fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.” The president argued that Venezuela “unilaterally seized and stole American oil, American assets, and American platforms costing us billions and billions of dollars. They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it.” He continued, “We built [the] Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations and they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also spoke at the press conference, noting that the U.S. had given Maduro multiple opportunities over the past several months to surrender and abdicate power peacefully. “Nicolás Maduro had his chance … until he didn’t. He effed around and he found out,” Hegseth quipped. “President Trump is deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence to our country, deadly serious about stopping the flow of drugs and poison to our people, deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us, and deadly serious about reestablishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” he continued. “This is about the safety, security, freedom, and prosperity of the American people. This is America first. This is peace through strength and the United States War Department is proud to help deliver it. Welcome to 2026. And under President Trump, America is back.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent the weekend appearing on various news programs to quash allegations of constitutional overreach, forever wars, and violations of international law. “There’s not a war. I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations and not at war against Venezuela. We are enforcing American laws,” Rubio insisted in a Sunday appearance on NBC. “This was, at essence, at its core, a law enforcement function,” he added. Rubio noted that previous administrations, including the Biden administration, issued bounties for Maduro’s capture, ranging from $25 million to $50 million, but never “enforced” those bounties. “It’s easy to make a wanted poster and say $50 million for the capture of Maduro, but no one takes that seriously because you’re not going to do anything about it. President Trump did something about it.”

Rubio also addressed potential military actions against Cuba, run by communist dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel, successor to Fidel and Raúl Castro. When asked if the Cuban regime is the “next target” for the U.S., Rubio replied, “Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem, first of all, for the people of Cuba.” He added, “I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes.” The secretary of State said that he was “not going to talk” publicly about future U.S. policy and actions regarding Cuba, but suggested, “I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.” He explained that Maduro’s “entire internal security force, his internal security apparatus, is entirely controlled by Cubans. … It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards. In terms of their internal intelligence, who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors, those are all Cubans.”

Following the raid on Venezuela, Díaz-Canel ordered a period of national mourning for a reported 32 Cuban military personnel who were killed by U.S. forces while protecting Maduro. “Honor and glory to the brave Cuban combatants who fell confronting terrorists in imperial uniform, who kidnapped and illegally took out of their country the President of [Venezuela] and his wife, whose lives our own helped to protect at the request of that sister nation,” the Cuban autocrat said in a social media post.

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump acknowledged the alliance between Cuba and Venezuela but clarified that he has no specific plans against Cuba at the moment. “No, Cuba is going to fall of its own volition. Cuba is doing very poorly,” he said. “Cuba was always very reliant on Venezuela. That’s where they got their money, and they protected Venezuela, but that didn’t work out too well in this case.”

Communist China has also maintained a close relationship with Maduro’s regime and, in fact, had several diplomats visiting Venezuela when the U.S. military strikes took place. A spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the US’ blatant use of force against a sovereign state and action against its president.” The CCP, which has enacted a program of oppression against its own people, including mass arrests and genocide, asked the U.S. to “abide by international law” and “stop violating other countries’ sovereignty and security.” The CCP statement continued, “Such hegemonic acts of the US seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean region. China firmly opposes it.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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