Warner blasts Venezuela military action, warns of 'dangerous precedent'
Virginia senator calls Maduro extraction 'brilliantly executed' but says administration bypassed Congress, may be motivated by oil
Sen. Mark Warner sharply criticized the Trump administration’s military extraction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Monday, warning the operation sets a dangerous precedent for international law and may have more to do with oil than restoring democracy.
Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised the military’s execution of the mission but condemned the lack of congressional consultation before Delta Force teams and a 15,000-person naval armada deployed off Venezuela’s coast.
“This was brilliantly done,” Warner said during his weekly media availability. “Let me also say at the front end, Maduro was a repressive leader, a bad guy.”
But Warner said the operation violated constitutional requirements for Congress to authorize military action.
“This action, which was taken without any congressional consultation, really goes against the basic tenets of our system,” he said.
The administration has characterized the operation as a law enforcement action to execute a warrant against Maduro, but Warner rejected that explanation.
“I completely reject that this was somehow simply an execution of a warrant,” Warner said. “It just doesn’t pass the smell test when you sent in the Delta teams and you literally have an armada off the coast of Venezuela for months.”
Warner questioned whether oil, not drugs or democracy, motivated the operation. Venezuela holds close to 20% of the world’s known oil reserves but produces only about 1 million barrels per day, down from 4 million, due to deteriorating infrastructure under the Chavez and Maduro governments.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Warner said. “We saw that when the Bush administration promised that the invasion of Iraq would be costless, that Iraqi oil would pay for it. That wasn’t how it played out.”
Warner said rebuilding Venezuela’s oil infrastructure would take two to three years based on his briefings.
“Does that mean we’re going to run Venezuela for two to three years? Is that what the American people signed up for?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”
The senator also raised concerns about international implications, warning that other nations could use similar justifications for military action.
“If any country can go in and extract a leader of another nation simply based upon the presumption that they broke our law, what would then stop Vladimir Putin from saying, well, Zelensky broke Russian law so he can go take him out, or stop President Xi from taking over Taiwan?” Warner said.
Warner highlighted what he called hypocrisy in the administration’s approach, noting Trump’s recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted on drug trafficking charges similar to those against Maduro.
“You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case, while issuing a pardon in another,” Warner said in a statement Saturday.
Warner said he would vote for a War Powers Resolution introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., stipulating that the U.S. should not be at war with Venezuela without congressional authorization. That measure is expected to come up for a vote this week.
In a statement on Saturday, Kaine called the operation “a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.”
Rep. Don Beyer, D-8th, also opposed the action, saying on Saturday on social media that the administration “lied to Congress and launched an illegal war for regime change and oil.”
Warner said he plans to seek answers during a Gang of Eight briefing with defense and state department officials.
“I’ve got a lot of questions before we put those sailors and soldiers in harm’s way,” Warner said, noting that many naval vessels involved are home-ported in Norfolk. “Particularly if at the end of the day, this is about trying to take Venezuelan oil and not about restoring democracy.”