House Democrats expressed sweeping concerns on Wednesday that President Donald Trump ousted former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro without a clear plan in place for the country’s smooth transition to democratic governance.
Democratic members on the House Foreign Affairs Committee aired their frustration during an informal hearing, with Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) saying that “what we’re witnessing is not a coherent strategy.”
“It is chaos,” Amo said. “It is clear that Trump has no plan for what will happen next in Venezuela.”
Ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) was among multiple Democrats who voiced fears that Trump’s actions would lead to, or force, the United States to station military troops in Venezuela. He accused the Trump administration of failing to develop “any credible plan” for “how the United States will protect American interests in our own hemisphere.”
Frank Mora, a former deputy assistant defense secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, who was called on to speak as a witness, egged on those fears. While Washington has denied it is pursuing sustained military engagement in Venezuela, its actions have put it on the path to where a “sustained enforcement capacity” will be necessary to achieve lasting political reforms or economic change, he said.
“The assumption, implied or explicit, that the United States can shape Venezuelan governance, economic outcomes, and a democratic transition from afar, without military presence, without a robust diplomatic footprint, and without a clear political roadmap” is not based in reality, Mora said. “The administration has signaled that it wants to avoid nation-building and sustained engagement, yet it also implies that the United States can meaningfully influence outcomes from a distance. That tension remains unresolved. Historically, members, there are no successful examples of one country managing another’s internal governance or economic direction without a sustained presence, military, diplomatic, development assistance, or a strong multilateral framework.”
Democrats pointed to a variety of other concerns during the meeting.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) raised questions about why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been largely absent from public conversations about Venezuela, despite U.S. intelligence being touted by Trump and the Pentagon as integral to Maduro’s overthrow.
Others went after the administration on the grounds that the Venezuelan operation detracted from efforts to tackle affordability issues on the mainland. And they attacked Republicans controlling the foreign affairs committee for not agreeing to hold a formal hearing on Venezuela, or attend the meeting arranged this week.
“Let’s get started with a very obvious fact: if Donald Trump’s Venezuela operation was good for America, why are Republicans afraid to talk about it? Why are people afraid to have any hearings on it? It’s because they know Donald Trump’s Venezuela operation has been a disaster,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) claimed.
“Nearly half of Americans cite the cost of living as their biggest personal challenge this year,” Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-MD) said during his remarks, accusing the White House of “failing to make good on its promise to lower costs on day one.”
“The Trump administration has instead blown through hundreds of millions of dollars on a military operation,” Olszewski told colleagues. “The naval blockade of Venezuela alone has already American taxpayers roughly $700 million, and that tab grows by about $9 million every single day.”
The debate sparked when Trump authorized an extraordinary military operation to capture Maduro from his Venezuelan residence earlier this month and bring him to New York to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges.
The move toppled Maduro from power, after he had controlled the country since 2013. Throughout his rule, the Venezuelan leader was widely seen by the U.S. and other international players as an illegitimate president who oversaw sham elections. His capture has been highly debated by critics who see it as an abuse of Trump’s executive power, an attack on Venezuelan sovereignty, and an excuse for the U.S. to take over Venezuela’s oil reserves.
The Trump administration has been plain about its plan to manage the country’s energy supply, but officials say it is to prepare Venezuela’s comeback in South America and keep an authoritarian regime from controlling the world’s largest oil supply.
“We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
“We’re going to be a team that’s working with the people of Venezuela to make sure we have Venezuela right. … The biggest beneficiary is going to be the people of Venezuela, and also, I can’t stress this strongly enough, the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States,” the president added. “Because for us to just leave — who’s going to take over? I mean, there is nobody to take over. … If we just left, it would have zero chance of ever coming back.”
White House officials have been unclear about who they see as the best-case scenario for future Venezuelan leadership. In recent days, Trump has been dismissive of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado rising to the occasion, despite her being typically viewed as the natural democratic successor, given her high-profile role in opposing the Maduro regime.
A meeting Trump is holding with Machado on Thursday could shed more light on the administration’s agenda.
Former acting Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who also testified during the informal hearing on Wednesday, described the looming meeting as “a watershed moment, in terms of what comes next for the United States, but also what comes next for the Venezuelan people.”
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“It’s my hope that [Machado] will be able to emerge from the White House with some kind of endorsement from the president, or a clear recognition that the Democratic Opposition and the Venezuelan people need to have a seat at the table at this very important moment in Venezuelan history,” he told lawmakers.
For now, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, a longtime Maduro ally, is technically running the country, though the U.S. retains sweeping control. Trump has warned Rodriguez that if she fails to comply with the administration’s reforms and efforts to rebuild the country’s once-vibrant oil industry, she, too, could face ouster.