NH delegation decries US attack on Venezuela

The elected officials who represent southwestern New Hampshire in Washington, D.C., on Saturday condemned the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in that country.

Maduro was taken into U.S. custody during an attack on Caracas that took place around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. At a news conference later that morning, President Donald Trump told Americans his administration will run the country until a new leader friendly to the U.S. installed.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Sen. Maggie Hassan and Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander condemned Maduro’s pattern of governing in Venezuela, but also condemned the Trump administration’s use of decisive action without consulting the legislative branch.

Trump described Maduro as a “narco-terrorist” and said the U.S. “isn’t afraid to have boots on the ground” in the country. The goal, he said, is to stabilize Venezuela, increase its oil output and harness that output to benefit the U.S.

A recently unsealed indictment alleges Maduro partnered with international drug trafficking organizations to transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.

In a Facebook statement, Goodlander called Maduro “a dictator and a thug” and praised the skill and bravery of American troops.

“But President Trump needs to explain how taking large-scale military strikes without congressional authorization will make the American people safer and what the plan is now,” she wrote.

Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said U.S. lawmakers have been largely left in the dark.

“Because the President and his Cabinet repeatedly denied any intention of conducting regime change in Venezuela when briefing Congress, we are left with no understanding of how the Administration is preparing to mitigate risks to the U.S. and we have no information regarding a long-term strategy following today’s extraordinary escalation,” Shaheen wrote in a news release.

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Hassan said congress should have had a say in the use of U.S. military.

“Our Constitution vests the power to declare war in Congress to ensure that the American people have a voice in deciding whether to put our service members and our country at risk,” Hassan wrote on Facebook.

Her concerns echo the sentiment of legislation Goodlander helped introduce last month.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, Goodlander was one of the sponsors of the Unauthorized War with Venezuela Act, which sought to prohibit the executive branch from spending any federal funds on the use of military force inside Venezuela or against Venezuelan forces, including remote or intermittent strikes, unless Congress authorized it doing so.

“There are very good reasons why our Constitution entrusts Congress with war powers. It is a basic and critical check on the most consequential government powers and decisions — life or death decisions that can cost America’s military families and taxpayers dearly,” Goodlander said in a news release at the time. “... This commonsense legislation draws a simple and critical line: the President cannot unilaterally drag America into war with Venezuela without clear authorization from the United States Congress.”

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Abigail Ham can be reached at 603-355-8554, or aham@keenesentinel.com.

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