By Tracy Cabrera
WASHINGTON, District of Columbia — While lawmakers from both political parties in the United States Congress have expressed misgivings over American military attacks on Venezuelan soil, US citizens in this country have been issued a warning by the US Embassy in Caracas, cautioning them about possible repurcussions from Venezuela’s authorities.
Early Saturday morning, US forces hit Venezuela with a ‘large-scale strike’ which resulted with the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who was flown out of the Caracas to an undisclosed custodial destination.
The extraordinary nighttime operation, announced by US president Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack, stemmed from the Trump administration’s exerting pressure on Maduro over involvement in narco-terrorism in mainland USA.
Prior to the latest attack, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was reportedly behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels—the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began airstrikes in September.
For months, President Trump had threatened Caracas that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs. Maduro has decried the US military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Multiple explosions rang out, and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital as Maduro’s government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations. The Venezuelan government called it an ‘imperialist attack’, urged its citizens to take to the streets.
It was not immediately clear who was running the country even as Maduro’s current whereabouts were not immediately known.
The Venezuelan president, Trump said, “has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This operation was done in conjunction with US Law Enforcement. Details to follow.”
Inquiries to the Pentagon and US Southern Command since Trump’s social media post went unanswered. The FAA warned all commercial and private US pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country to the north, was off limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.”
Regional reaction was not immediately forthcoming in the early hours of Saturday. Cuba, however, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, denounced the action. Iran’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the strikes.
It was not clear if the US Congress had been officially notified of the strikes.
US senator Michael Lee (Republican from Utah), posted on X his potential concerns, reflecting a view from the right flank in the Congress: “I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.”
Meanwhile, the US Armed Services committees that have jurisdiction over military matters have not been notified by the administration of any actions, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.
Republican and Democrat lawmakers alike have raised deep reservations and flat-out objections to the US attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling on boats near the Venezuelan coast even as Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
