US Senate votes to curb military action in Venezuela
Peter Graff and James Oliphant |
The US Senate has voted to advance a resolution that would bar President Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorisation, even as Trump says US oversight of the troubled nation could last years.
The Senate voted 52 to 47 on a procedural measure on Thursday to advance the war powers resolution, as a handful of Trump’s fellow Republicans voted with every Democrat in favour of moving towards a final vote.
Trump told the New York Times in an interview published on Thursday that the US could oversee Venezuela and control its oil revenue for years.
He also appeared to lift a threat of military action against Venezuela’s neighbour, Colombia.
Trump invited Colombia’s leftist leader, whom he had previously called a “sick man”, to visit Washington.
“Only time will tell” how long the United States would oversee Venezuela, Trump said.
When asked by the newspaper if it would be three months, six months, a year or longer, Trump said: “I would say much longer.”
“We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,” Trump said of Venezuela, where he sent troops to seize President Nicolas Maduro in a night raid on Saturday.
Trump said the US was “getting along very well” with the government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro loyalist who had been the ousted leader’s vice-president.
Venezuela’s top lawmaker, Jorge Rodriguez, said on Thursday that a significant number of foreign and Venezuelan prisoners would be freed during the day.
The releases, a repeated demand of the country’s political opposition, were a gesture of peace, Rodriguez said, adding the action was unilateral and not agreed upon with any other party.
Top opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s movement, as well as other opposition figures and human rights groups, have demanded the release of political prisoners since the US capture of Maduro.
Local rights group Foro Penal estimates 863 political prisoners are in the country, including political figures, rights activists, protesters arrested after the disputed 2024 election, and journalists.
In an interview on Thursday with Fox News, Trump said he planned to meet Machado when she visited Washington next week.
The Times reported Trump declined to answer questions about why he had decided not to give power in Venezuela to the opposition, which Washington had previously considered the legitimate winner of the 2024 election.
The Senate measure faces a steep climb to become law.
It would need to be passed by the House of Representatives, which is also controlled by Trump’s Republicans. and would need a two-thirds majority in each chamber to override a likely Trump veto.
Still, Thursday’s vote marked a rare sign of congressional Republican pushback against the Trump White House.
“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump said in a social media post.
Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under a US blockade.
Venezuela, with the world’s biggest proven oil reserves, has become impoverished in recent decades, with eight million people fleeing abroad.
Washington and the Venezuelan opposition have long blamed corruption, mismanagement and brutality by the ruling Socialist Party.
Maduro blamed the economic damage on US sanctions.
Trump will meet the heads of major oil companies at the White House on Friday to discuss ways of raising Venezuela’s oil production.
Trump told Fox News that oil companies would spend at least $US100 billion ($A149 billion) in Venezuela.
Reuters
