Wow. Unquestionably, a major event occurred early Saturday morning. The United States conducted what it described as a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d against Venezuela, resulting in the capture and arrest of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first federal charges against Maduro were unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020. They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding narco-terrorism, U.S. prosecutors allege that Maduro led the so-called Cartel of the Suns<\/em> and conspired with the FARC to use cocaine as a \u201cweapon\u201d to flood the United States. The FARC \u2014 short for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia \u2014 is a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group founded in 1964 as the armed wing of the Colombian Communist Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On cocaine importation, the allegation is that Maduro intended to move multi-ton shipments of cocaine into the U.S. As for weapons charges, they include the possession of, and conspiracy to possess, machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maduro has also long been viewed as an illegitimate president by numerous countries. Both the 2018 and 2024 elections were marred by serious discrepancies, and key opposition parties and candidates were barred from participation. This included leading opposition figure, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado (the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner), who went into hiding after the 2024 election to avoid arrest. Venezuela, by any measure, has been in crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suffice it to say, Maduro is not a good guy. But \u201cgood guy\u201d or not, such is not justification for a large-scale military strike. And to be clear, my military expertise is minimal at best. The broader problem is that when major military actions occur, many people \u2014 also with minimal military expertise \u2014 quickly decide whether the action was good, bad, constitutional, or unconstitutional, based largely on who made the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That constitutional question centers on the War Powers Act of 1973. The Act limits a president\u2019s ability to commit U.S. forces to armed conflict without congressional approval. It requires notification to Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces and was intended to restore balance between the executive and legislative branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the Act has been contested ever since its passage. Every president<\/em> since 1973 has argued that at least parts of it unconstitutionally infringe on executive power. Consider their record while in office:<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these actions occurred without prior congressional approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was the capture and arrest of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro a good thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know. What I do know is this: we live in a beautifully diverse community in Central Florida, with many residents from Central and South America \u2014 Venezuela included. While my polling data may indeed be inexact, to a person, the Venezuelans here are jubilant about what just happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good or bad? Constitutional or not? Hard to say. But there is much to evaluate, and consistency matters \u2014 especially when considering the precedent and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026 Wow. Unquestionably, a major event occurred early Saturday morning. The United States conducted what it described as a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d against Venezuela, resulting in the capture and arrest of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The first federal charges against Maduro were unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020. They include: Regarding narco-terrorism, U.S. prosecutors allege … <\/p>\n\n
AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"