On Thursday evening, a crucial bipartisan push in the Senate to block the Trump administration from taking military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization failed. The defeat of the War Powers Resolution came just days before the U.S. Navy’s largest and most powerful aircraft carrier is set to arrive in the southern Caribbean.
In the lead-up to the vote, the administration sought to downplay concerns that war with Venezuela was imminent. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth briefed a dozen lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill, assuring them that no strikes on Venezuelan soil were being planned—and that such action would require Congressional approval. While Democrats welcomed the briefing after being excluded from a security meeting on the issue last week, they remain unconvinced by the administration’s policy of striking alleged drug boats. Interviewed after the meeting, leading Democrats questioned why the administration has shifted from drug interdiction to aerial strikes, denounced the strikes as blatantly illegal, and expressed alarm at being left in the dark about the administration’s plans.
Assurances to lawmakers aside, the administration’s sudden moderation appeared calculated to ensure the War Powers Resolution’s failure. According to Jake Johnston, Director of International Research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the change in tune was likely a “damage control operation” ahead of the Senate vote. He suggested the administration was merely buying time until the USS Gerald Ford arrives in the region, at which point officials may “come up with a legal justification, however flimsy, to bypass congressional authorization for a regime change war” that “hawkish officials have been clearly gunning for.”
Hope that more Republicans would break from their party and vote in favor of the resolution proved unfounded. Only two Senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined 47 Democrats in supporting the resolution. Paul, the Republican co-sponsor, tried and failed to appeal to a supposed non-interventionist strain within MAGA.
The Trump administration’s distinction between strikes on boats—which have killed up to 67 people after the 16th strike announced Tuesday—and potential land strikes was taken at face value by many lawmakers. After the vote, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine emphasized that the resolution addressed a land invasion of Venezuela, not attacks at sea. Yet this distinction is entirely artificial. Each of the U.S. strikes on alleged “drug traffickers" has been clearly illegal, relying on a convoluted argument that portrays “cartels” as “narcoterrorists” that pose a direct threat to American lives.
But the question of legality may itself be a distraction. As media critics Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi have recently argued, the press’s willingness to “debate” the “legality” of a policy that is both morally indefensible and at least in part about Venezuelan oil—if the president’s own words are to be believed—is itself part of the problem. Rather than exposing the political logic of the administration’s so-called “war on drugs,” in which allied leaders with direct ties to drug traffickers and gangs are tolerated while critics of Washington are sanctioned as drug kingpins, much of the mainstream media has accepted the narrative at face value. When the drone-striking of anonymous men in boats—some demonstrably innocent, none officially identified as cartel members—becomes a matter of neutral debate rather than moral outrage, the battle has already been lost.
A series of recent legal decisions on gender-based violence further reveals the Trump administration’s depravity—and sentences vulnerable asylum-seeking women to their death.
APPLY TO WORK WITH US!
NACLA offers a 5-10 hour/week internship opportunity for students who will receive course credit and/or funding from their educational institution for the internship as part of their studies.
Candidates seeking in-person (based in NYC), hybrid, or remote work will be considered. Internship positions are unpaid. NACLA encourages interns to seek applicable funding from their institutions of study to support their work placement.
To apply, please email info@nacla.org with a resume and a brief summary of why you are interested in working with NACLA. Apply by November 15.
WINTER ISSUE COMING SOON!
In 1950, Martinican author Aimé Césaire used the term "imperial boomerang" to describe a historical circuit, in which the tactics of imperial domination tested abroad return home, reshaping the very societies that invented them. Our winter issue, “Boomerangs of Empire and the Technofascist Turn,” takes Césaire’s insight not as metaphor but as method, tracing how this returning and disseminating violence is shaping the Americas today.
A sneek peek from print: A truck belonging to the Dominican Republic’s General Directorate of Migration at the Dajabón border crossing, where migrants are deported to Haiti. The Dominican government has deported over 450,000 people in the last year. Stay tuned for more in Simón Rodríguez's forthcoming article in the Winter 2025 issue of the NACLA Report. (Micely Díaz) Also, Rodríguez will be featured this Sunday at 10 am PST/1 pm EST on KPFA Berkeley to discuss "Venezuela Under Attack." Check it out at KPFA.org or 94.1 FM.
AROUND THE REGION
KIRCHNER ON TRIAL—Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner went on trial Thursday in what has come to be known as the “notebooks case,” the largest corruption case in the country’s history. The 72-year-old politician, who has been under house arrest since June following a six-year sentence in a separate corruption case, is accused of heading a bribery ring involving more than 80 former officials and businesspeople, all of whom are all set to stand trial. The case dates back to 2018, when notebooks belonging to the former driver of a low-level official were published in the press, detailing years of illegal cash payments. Kirchner’s legal team has denied the accusations against her and her late husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, calling the proceedings a “witch hunt” and an “act of revenge.” If convicted, Kirchner faces an additional six to 10 years in prison—likely to be served under house arrest—in a trial expected to last up to two years. The proceedings come at a turbulent moment for Argentina’s Peronist movement. Last week, right-wing President Javier Milei, a fierce critic of Kircher, scored a decisive victory in key legislative elections.
SHEINBAUM PRESSES CHARGES—Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Wednesday that she is pressing charges against the man who publicly groped her the day before. Video of the incident—in which a visibly intoxicated man approached the president from behind and attempted to touch her chest and kiss her neck—sparked outrage in a country with extremely high levels of violence against women. During her morning address, Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to take legal action: “If I don’t file a complaint, where does that leave all women?” She also noted that while sexual harassment is a crime in Mexico City, it is not recognized as such under federal law or in many Mexican states—something Sheinbaum vowed to change. The episode has prompted an outpouring of solidarity online, as Mexican women share their own experiences of harassment and assault. It has also renewed calls for the government to dedicate more resources to combating gender-based violence nationwide.
ÁÑEZ RELEASED—Bolivia’s Supreme Court ordered the release of former President Jeanine Áñez on Wednesday, overturning her 10-year prison sentence for orchestrating the 2019 coup against former leader Evo Morales. Supreme Court Justice Romer Saucedo cited violations of Añez’s due process rights during her trial as the reason for overturning her conviction. Áñez’s short time in office was marked by violence, repression, and corruption. In the immediate aftermath of Morales’ forced resignation, she oversaw massacres of Indigenous protesters, issued a decree shielding the Armed Forces from prosecution, and fueled anti-Indigenous racism by brandishing Bibles and mocking Indigenous rituals. Her unconstitutional rule came to an end with the 2020 election of left-wing President Luis Arce Catacora. Arrested in March 2021 on charges of terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy, Áñez was convicted the following year of "dereliction of duty” and “decisions contrary to the constitution.” She was formally released from prison on Thursday in La Paz after serving more than four years behind bars. Her release came just two days before the inauguration of Bolivia’s new center-right president, Rodrigo Paz.
NOBOA’S STATE OF SIEGE—Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a new state of exception on Wednesday, suspending key constitutional rights across five additional provinces and three cantons. The announcement extends a troubling hallmark of Noboa’s presidency: a state of near-permanent militarization. Since taking office in 2023, Ecuador has been governed under extraordinary measures for more than 500 days. The government claims that this radical departure from constitutional norms is justified by the presence of armed groups linked to illegal mining and drug trafficking in the affected territories, an argument that many find unconvincing given the president’s own alleged ties to narcotrafficking. Even on its own terms, the government’s militarized approach has proven largely ineffective. Ecuador is currently on track for its bloodiest year in modern history, with a murder nearly every hour. The crackdown, however, has been more effective at silencing dissent. Protesters smeared as “terrorists” have faced violent repression, and weeks ago, for the first time since 1979, Ecuador’s powerful Indigenous movement called off a six-week national strike without securing any concessions.
