US Senator Flags Possible Venezuela Land Strikes

By Staff, Agencies

American Senator Lindsey Graham warned that land strikes in Venezuela are a “real possibility,” as tensions rise over a significant US military buildup in the Caribbean, which Caracas condemns as invasion preparation.

“President [Donald] Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia,” Graham said in an interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“So there will be a congressional briefing about a potential expanding from the sea to the land. I support that idea,” he added.

Trump said Thursday that land strikes are “going to be next,” claiming that “the drugs coming in by sea are like 5% of what they were a year ago” due to the strikes.

Despite Trump’s claims, he provided no proof to support it, and congressional members have also stated that the administration has failed to supply adequate evidence that the ships in question are transporting drugs.

While Graham announced a Congressional briefing on the land strikes, the US Constitution gives Congress, not the executive branch, the exclusive power to declare war.

However, Graham repeatedly said he is confident the Trump administration has the authority to carry out the strikes.

“There is no requirement for Congress to declare war before the commander-in-chief can use force,” he said.

Democrats and even some Republicans have criticized the White House’s action. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Sunday that the Trump administration’s actions in the Caribbean are “murder.”

Graham pushed back against Gallego’s remarks, claiming that “this is not murder. This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.”

As of Friday, at least 43 people have been killed in the US strikes on 10 vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September 2.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro condemned the US presence as a prelude to a possible invasion aimed at toppling his government, which Washington accuses of leading a drug cartel.