With the future of Venezuela still uncertain, Connecticut Democrats are blasting President Donald Trump for the military moves in the South American country that started with the bombings of small boats and escalated to the capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro.

Since Maduro’s capture on Saturday, American allies like France, Brazil, Mexico and Bahrain have raised concerns at the United Nations in New York City about military action in a sovereign nation.

Connecticut U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said not only was the capture of Maduro illegal by international and U.S. law, but that Trump has no plan, which endangers both the U.S. and the people of Venezuela.

U.S. Rep. John B. Larson of East Hartford said that top officials from the Trump administration must make further disclosures to Congress about their future plans to avoid a long-running quagmire like the Iraq War that led to high costs in both funding and casualties of American troops who were killed or wounded from 2003 until 2011.

“What could go wrong — invading a country over oil?” Larson asked Tuesday. “I was proud to vote against the Iraq War.”

During an event at an East Hartford community center where he was endorsed for reelection by state Attorney General William Tong, Larson said more questions need to be answered about the future of Venezuela and its oil.

“This was an act of war,” Larson said. “This was a violation of both the Constitution and the War Powers Act. You can dice around it any way you want, but the constitution is clear, and so is the War Powers Act. You’ve got to come before the United States Congress and be accountable for those actions and explain what the plan is and where we are headed. … Why was the Congress not informed?”

Trump has said that the United States will “run” Venezuela because “we’re in charge.” He has repeatedly referred to the Monroe Doctrine, which was crafted in 1823 by President James Monroe to declare that the U.S. maintains strong influence in the Western Hemisphere. Trump and top administration officials say that Maduro and others have flooded the country with drugs that have killed Americans. Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of and conspiracy to possess machine guns — charges to which he has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan.

Maduro has ruled Venezuela since 2013 when the former leader, Hugo Chavez, died, but American officials have refused since 2019 to recognize Maduro as president because his re-election was deemed to be fraudulent.

At a weekend news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump said that Venezuela’s oil is a key factor for the country’s future.

“We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela, and it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused by that country,” Trump said.

Larson’s three opponents in the First Congressional District have all raised related concerns over the issue.

“If we’ve learned anything from the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s that deposing foreign leaders without a plan for what comes next carries massive risks for American troops, American taxpayers, and regional stability,” said former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin, a veteran of Afghanistan. “The problem isn’t just that Trump didn’t consult Congress, it’s that he’s reckless and irresponsible. It’s also clear that Trump actually wants a world that’s broken up into spheres of influence, where regional superpowers do whatever they want in their neighborhood. That’s music to China’s and Russia’s ears, bad for America, and leads to a much more dangerous, much less stable world.”

Hartford attorney Ruth Fortune, who is running in the four-way race for Congress, said, “The U.S. invaded Venezuela for its oil. Opportunistic. Immoral. Lawless. Make no mistake. President Trump carried out an unauthorized act of war against Venezuela, bombing another nation’s capital and forcibly removing its leader without congressional approval. That violates the Constitution, the War Powers Clause, national sovereignty, and international law. International law does not disappear because we claim moral superiority.”

Fortune added that the issue should not be partisan, saying that members of Congress “are sworn to uphold the Constitution, not protect a president’s ego or political future.”

State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford said, “Starting a war without legal authority and abducting foreign leaders is a dangerous abuse of power. Congress needs to wake up before another generation of young Americans is sent to die in a fool’s war over oil.”

Murphy vs. White House

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, has blasted Trump by saying that Venezuela had “nothing to do with American security” and never posed any kind of military threat to the United States.

“This wasn’t about the drugs. Venezuela sends drugs to Europe, not the U.S. (and it’s cocaine, not fentanyl),” Murphy wrote on X. “This wasn’t about helping Venezuela – they left Maduro’s despotic regime in charge. This was about oil and Wall Street. How do we know? Because Trump keeps saying it!”

The White House responded on an X account against Murphy.

“You are a buffoon, Chris,” the account said. “Tell that to the families of the innocent Americans brutally murdered by the gang members the regime imported here — or the drugs they trafficked here. You’re sick.”

On X, formerly known as Twitter, former Vice President Kamala Harris said that Trump was placing “troops at risk” and “destabilizing a region.”

“This is not about drugs or democracy,” Harris wrote. “It is about oil and Donald Trump’s desire to play the regional strongman.”

Despite filing numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration, Tong acknowledged that resolving the Venezuela issue cannot be done with a simple lawsuit filed by the states.

“It’s almost quaint now to talk about the rule of law,” Tong said when asked Tuesday by The Courant. “They don’t care. They just don’t care. … With respect to Venezuela, obviously that’s a matter of foreign affairs and national security. Who is going to ensure order in Venezuela in a power vacuum? Who’s going to protect any American interests that are there but American soldiers? And those soldiers will come from Connecticut and the other 49 states and the territories and the district. It is the lives of people that grew up here in East Hartford and across the state that will be put on the line.”

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(Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com)

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