Editors at National Review Online assess the Venezuela “crisis.”
The regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela is malign and illegitimate. After Maduro stole the 2018 presidential election, nearly 60 countries joined the United States in recognizing Juan Guaidó as the rightful president of that country. Six years later, opposition leader Edmundo González defeated Maduro at the ballot box — but Maduro once again refused to accept the results.
Maduro and his henchmen have systematically stolen the wealth of his country and immiserated its people. But the Maduro regime is not merely a domestic problem for Venezuelans because it has directly and consistently threatened American interests. …
… The end of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, and its replacement by a democratically elected alternative, would be an unambiguous boon to the United States.
Yet, while the Trump administration’s current anti-Maduro policy is highly threatening to the regime, at the same time it is vague and contradictory.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called the administration’s actions a “counterdrug operation.” And the New York Times reported in mid-November that Rubio told House and Senate leaders that “ousting Mr. Maduro was not the administration’s objective.”
Nonetheless, the United States has assembled a powerful naval fleet, to include a carrier strike group and a Marine Expeditionary Unit, in the Caribbean. The Air Force has deployed fighter squadrons to the region. We are attacking and destroying suspected drug-smuggling boats on the high seas. …
… But if President Trump intends to use military force to topple Maduro, or coerce him into exile, he should go to Congress to ask for an authorization for the use of military force.
He should do this not only because such a request would place the decision to declare war, in both the spirit and the letter of our Constitution, where it belongs — Congress — but because this administration has made no sustained effort to explain to the American people why Venezuela’s current government warrants removal at the cost of American treasure and, very possibly, American lives.
