Hours after the dead-of-night military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Maryland’s congressional leaders have split along party lines in response to the mission.
President Donald Trump’s administration announced Saturday morning that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being flown to the United States to face criminal charges for narco-terrorism. The Trump administration has been ramping up military operations in the region and attacking small vessels it claims were smuggling drugs.
The United States government will “run” Venezuela until a safe transition of power can take place, Trump said in a press conference Saturday.
Maryland Rep. Johnny Olszewski Jr., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that Trump’s statements on Saturday “are so deeply concerning.”
“It is both possible, and indeed necessary, to oppose Nicolás Maduro’s corrupt and repressive rule while also challenging the legality of an unauthorized, violent and reckless attack on a foreign nation,” Olszewski said. He added that Congress “must conduct extensive oversight and demand a lawful and clear strategy for what comes next.”
Another Maryland member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, said the military action “should anger every American and every member of Congress.”
“Trump was elected to run America, not Venezuela” Mfume said in a post to X. “With everyday people struggling to find a way to pay for increasing healthcare costs, higher grocery bills and home heating bills, we don’t need a gangster President who spends time invading another country but refuses to take care of American problems first.”
Trump said in the Saturday morning press conference that he wants “peace, liberty and justice” for the people of Venezuela, including those who immigrated to the United States and want to return. Thousands of Venezuelans have left the South American country under Maduro’s authoritarian government and its economic troubles.
Trump has opposed Maduro since 2020 when the U.S. first indicted the Venezuelan president. Trump has claimed Maduro runs a drug trafficking ring and criminal group called Cartel de los Soles — a term many Venezuelans used to generally refer to corrupt military officers, the Associated Press reported.
Rep. Andy Harris, the sole Republican to represent Maryland in Congress, said in a post to X that “it’s about time someone stood up to the narcoterrorists who have been poisoning our youth for years...”
“Thousands of innocent American lives will be saved by President Trump’s decision to seize and arrest Maduro,” Harris said in his post.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration couldn’t notify Congress ahead of time because it was a “trigger-based mission” that was largely a law enforcement operation.
The decision not to alert lawmakers has angered some in Congress, including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who called the mission a “grave abuse of power by the President.”
“Maduro is a dictator, but his regime did not pose immediate threat necessary to warrant U.S. military action on foreign soil without Congressional approval,” he said in a statement. Van Hollen accused Trump of using an “act of war” to go after Venezuelan oil.
Trump said Saturday that he would bring in American oil companies to fix the infrastructure to pump oil, which he said would make money for the country. It is not clear what the long-term plans are for control of the country or its oil reserves that are owned by the Venezuelan government.
Van Hollen also mentioned in his statement that the capture of Maduro comes weeks after Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges in March 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Angela Alsobrooks, who also represents Maryland in the U.S. Senate, posted on X that the president’s actions were likely illegal because he did not seek approval from Congress. The move sets a “dangerous precedent,” she said.
“The founders were explicit: there are three coequal branches of government,” Alsobrooks wrote. Congress was intended to be a “bulwark” against “this kind of executive overreach,” she argued.
Maryland Rep. Sarah Elfreth said in a post to X that she opposed the military operation and she would work with colleagues “on the House Armed Services Committee to get the American people the answers we deserve.”
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