US senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties have recently questioned the recent attacks by US military forces deployed in the Caribbean Sea, supposedly to stem drug trafficking.
“So far, these people have been accused of being drug traffickers. No one has named them. No one has said what evidence there is. No one has said if they were armed, and no evidence has been presented to us, so at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings,” said Republican Senator Rand Paul in an interview on Fox News.
“This is similar to what China does, what Iran does, with drug traffickers. They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the people, so it’s wrong,” he added. “The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it,” he emphasized.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine echoed Paul on Fox and supported his position. “If we’re going to be at war, whether it’s against vessels in Nicaragua from a secret list that the president doesn’t share with Congress or the people, or a ground invasion in Venezuela, it should be done after a debate and a vote in Congress,” he argued.
Kaine and Paul, along with Senator Adam Schiff, introduced a War Powers Resolution to try to block the use of US troops on Venezuelan soil after Trump raised the possibility.
For his part, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, said Saturday on CBS that he has spoken with Trump and intends to brief members of Congress when he returns from his tour of Asia. However, he indicated that attacks on Venezuelan soil are “a real possibility.” “Congress doesn’t need to declare war for the commander in chief (Trump) to use force,” he stressed.
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, stated on ABC that the legality of the military interventions is “questionable.” “Neither the White House nor the Department of Defense has given us a logical explanation of the legal basis. They’re tying themselves in knots trying to explain it,” he noted.
For Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego, the intervention amounts to “murder.” “It’s very simple. If this president believes they’re doing something illegal, he should use the Coast Guard. If it’s an act of war, then our military is used, and you talk to us first. But these are murders,” he declared on NBC.
Republican Senator James Lankford also questioned the lack of consultation with Congress. “The Administration needs to inform Congress (…). If something like this were happening with this level of oversight under the Biden Administration, it would have been infuriating,” he said on C-SPAN.
The United States has carried out a total of ten attacks against vessels in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks without any congressional authorization, most of them resulting in fatalities. In addition, President Donald Trump has authorized CIA operations in Venezuela.
