By Ashlee Banks
Special to the AFRO
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are condemning President Donald Trump’s military operation in Venezuela, denouncing what they describe as an illegal act of aggression and a dangerous return to U.S. interventionism carried out without congressional approval or regard for international law.
Trump announced on Jan. 3 that the United States had launched a large-scale military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and removing them from the country. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Maduro and Flores had been “captured and flown out of the Country.”
Hours later, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump said the United States would assume control of Venezuela’s governance for an unspecified period.
“We’re going to be running it,” he said.
The announcement sent shockwaves through the region and across Capitol Hill. Venezuelan officials quickly condemned the operation and called for international intervention. Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto said Venezuela had requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council, calling the attack a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
Trump later posted a photograph of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, where Maduro and Flores were held before being transported to New York. They arrived Saturday evening, and Maduro is now being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A new indictment filed in the Southern District of New York, announced by Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleges that Maduro led “state sponsored gangs” and facilitated large-scale drug trafficking.
The president acknowledged that Congress was not notified until after the strike.
“Congress has a tendency to leak,” Trump said. “It would not be good if they leaked.”
That admission drew immediate criticism from Democratic lawmakers, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who said the administration lacked both legal authority and a coherent plan for the operation.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.-04) said he opposed both the premise and the execution of the takeover.
“I oppose the United States attempting to run another country and I am even more opposed to putting American boots on the ground in Venezuela for oil,” Ivey said in a statement to the AFRO. “The Trump administration has no coherent plan for Venezuela and no credible justification for taking over a sovereign country.”
“At home, families are already struggling with rising health care costs and higher grocery prices—clear evidence that the Trump administration is doing a bad job running America. Trying to run Venezuela at the same time is a recipe for disaster,” he added.
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37) described the operation as a significant escalation of Trump’s broader foreign policy approach.
“The self-proclaimed president of peace has once again resorted to war,” she said in a statement to the AFRO.
Kamlager-Dove accused the administration of conducting “military strikes in Venezuela without any declaration of war or authorization of military force from Congress,” warning that Trump had failed to articulate any legitimate strategic objective beyond seizing the country’s oil reserves.
“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,” she added. “And it emboldens autocrats around the world who can argue that invasions are an acceptable tool of foreign policy.”
U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke echoed those concerns, saying Americans had already rejected the administration’s approach.
“Since the Trump administration first initiated strikes off the coast of Venezuela, Americans have overwhelmingly opposed these illegal military actions and have rightly already rejected this unhinged escalation,” Clarke said in a statement. “President Trump lacked both the righteousness and the constitutional respect to bring his war before Congress. Had he done so, I would have voted no.”
Clarke warned that the intervention would further destabilize the region and undermine U.S. credibility abroad.
“This impulsive interventionism does not make Americans safer; it leaves our global reputation in tatters and further destabilizes an already volatile region and our South American and Caribbean relations,” the CBC chairwoman added.
Other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.-8), also raised constitutional concerns and demanded immediate congressional oversight.
“Pursuant to the Constitution, the framers gave Congress the sole power to declare war as the branch of government closest to the American people,” Jeffries said in a statement. “The House and Senate must be briefed immediately and compelling evidence to explain and justify this unauthorized use of military force should be presented forthwith.”
Kamlager-Dove likewise renewed calls for the administration to face congressional scrutiny.
“The American people do not want to be dragged into another war,” she said in a statement to the AFRO. “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.”