BAY AREA CONGRESSIONAL representatives on Saturday denounced the United States’ military action against Venezuela by the administration of President Donald Trump overnight Friday, calling it in turns “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”
Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. military struck Venezuela and a ground force entered the country and took Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife into custody on what the Trump said were drug trafficking-related indictments from the U.S. Department of Justice dating back to 2020.
He said the United States and a group of unnamed oil companies would run the country until a leader reliably sympathetic to U.S. interests could be installed and said military occupation was a possibility, without offering specifics. Trump said Venezuela’s vice president was leading the country in the meantime and was taking direction from the U.S.
Protests were planned around the region Saturday by antiwar groups including the Answer Coalition and Sonoma County Veterans for Peace. Events were planned in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and other cities to voice objection to the action, which was called a “dangerous precedent” by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, said the attack raised two questions, including what constitutional authority the president used to justify the action, and what the administration’s plan was after forcibly removing Venezuela’s leader.
“Last night, in direct violation of the United States Constitution, President Trump illegally attacked Venezuela’s capital and seized Nicolas Maduro,” Garamendi said in a statement.
He said Congress must assert its authority to restrict such unilateral military action by the executive branch.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called Maduro an “illegitimate leader” but questioned the Trump administration’s reliance on allegations of drug trafficking as a justification of force and said the administration had not proven Maduro represented an urgent threat to the United States.
“If the President grounds his actions on the basis of drug trafficking charges, it is entirely hypocritical in light of his recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was responsible for bringing more than 400 tons of cocaine in the United States in order to ‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,’” Pelosi said in a statement.
“The President launched a war last night without the consent of Congress. That is unconstitutional and illegal.”
U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland
“The Administration says Maduro will be tried for drug trafficking in a U.S. court — but Hernandez was convicted of the same crimes by an American jury and Trump pardoned him,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, similarly said in a press conference Saturday that Maduro was an illegitimate leader, but said that the administration’s actions were unconstitutional.
Maduro has been accused by the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity and political repression starting in 2014, and of remaining in power despite allegedly losing an election in 2024, according to Human Rights Watch and the Carter Center, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that monitors elections.
An arrest warrant was issued in 2024 for Maduro in Argentina, using any country’s ability to bring human rights charges under a principal called “Universal Jurisdiction.” But Trump did not cite international law in the U.S. operation and U.N. Secretary-General Guterres said the action threatened international law.
“He’s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected,” said spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
The U.N. said the action had been denounced by Venezuela’s government and that casualty figures from the operation, which involved military strikes, were unclear as of Saturday afternoon. Trump said there were no U.S. casualties.
Swalwell said nobody wanted to see Maduro in charge of Venezuela but said Trump’s unilateral military actions had been taken without legal congressional authority.
“What this president has done, in the shortcuts that he has taken, is he’s going to, one shortcut at a time, put us in a fascist cul-de-sac. That’s where he’d taken us, that’s the objection. It’s not a process objection, its an objection for acting in such a fascistic way,” he said.
Swalwell would not rule out funding an occupation of Venezuela, saying that too much was unknown, including how long any troop deployments would last and what they could cost. But he said the president had put Congress in a “tough position” and the Democratic caucus would meet soon to try to determine its stance.
Swalwell did not rule out impeachment actions when asked and said all options were on the table.
‘We do not let one man choose war’
U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said the president had started an illegal war.
“The President launched a war last night without the consent of Congress. That is unconstitutional and illegal,” Simon said in a statement.
She cited other past U.S. military actions in South and Central America and said Trump’s repeated mentioning of oil as the motivation for the coup disproved the administration’s claim that Maduro’s removal was about narcotics trafficking.
“This administration tells Americans there is no money for housing. No money for health care. No money to feed hungry children. But there is always money for war,” Simon said. “Congress must reassert its Constitutional power to declare war and reign in this Administration. We must use every tool to hold this President accountable and to defend the principle that in the U.S., we do not let one man choose war.”