The US military operation that brought Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to the US to face criminal charges has produced mixed reactions in Maryland - much along partisan lines. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this report.
DIAZ: Crowds have come out in towns and cities across America. Some for Trump's move into Venezuela, others against. On this street corner in Salisbury on the day after the attack, the mood was clearly against.
MALLOW: I feel like our invasion into Venezuela opened a Pandora's box of violating international law.
DIAZ: That was Suzanne Mallow, one of several dozen protestors holding up flags and placards opposing the US military intervention in Venezuela.
MALLOW: [This] just opens the door for anybody to go in and do what we just did.
DIAZ: The hastily organized protest drew a smattering of honking horns, some in support, some accompanied by shouts to "Make America Great Again," A familiar pro-Trump slogan. While Maduro and his wife were arraigned in a US court Monday on drug trafficking charges, for these protestors, the drugs are merely pretext for Trump's real aim: Venezuela's immense oil reserves. Here's Gwyn Benny of Laurel, Delaware:
BENNY: It's just an excuse. It's an excuse to line his pockets.
DIAZ: While some may have their doubts, Representative Andy Harris, the only Republican in Congress from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, got fully behind Trump’s move.
HARRIS: Look, he was a dangerous narco terrorist who was poisoning tens of thousands of our youth with the drugs he was sending to the United States. It's about time he was brought to justice, and I'm glad the president did it.
DIAZ: That's in stark contrast to Maryland's senior US Senator, Chris Van Hollen.
VAN HOLLEN: This has never been about stopping drugs from coming to the United States. We all support stopping drugs. This from the beginning has been about getting rid of Maduro, grabbing Venezuela's oil for American oil companies and Trump's billionaire buddies.
DIAZ: Democrats say they had no illusions about Maduro's autocratic rule, but questioned Trump's real motives, transparency, and legal authority. Delaware, US Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, put it this way to CNN:
COONS: I recognize that there's many Venezuelans celebrating the removal of Maduro, a truly brutal authoritarian. But what is alarming to me, what has angered me and many others of my colleagues, is that President Trump and his senior national security team wasn't open and honest with us about their plans for months. They said that the strikes against boats in the Southern Caribbean were all about drug trafficking and drug interdiction, and they had no plan for overthrowing the Duro or for sending the US military into Venezuela. Now that they have done so, sent the military in, captured Maduro, returned him to the United States. It seems today they're just making this up as they go along.
DIAZ: Many Democrats argue that the Constitution requires that a military strike of this scale should be authorized by Congress, not unilaterally by a president. But Harris and many other Republicans in Congress have sought to frame the move as a police action, not a war.
HARRIS: Look, I'm not sure why they're upset at this. Covert operations have to be conducted, whether it's capturing Bin Laden again in a foreign country, or whether it's capturing a narco terrorist in a presidential palace in Venezuela. These have to be covert operations. So I'm glad the President did it that way and didn't go to Congress to ask for a declaration of war.
DIAZ: However the strike is framed, neither side, least of all the president, has been able to say with any confidence what is next for the US and Venezuela. Here’s Van Hollen on Face the Nation Sunday:
VAN HOLLEN: We're still left with the regime. I mean, the vice president's part of the regime. Donald Trump says he's running Venezuela. This is not going to end well. Iraq did not end well; another effort to try to get rid of bad people. And we're glad to get rid of Maduro. I'd like to get rid of leaders in other countries, but you don't do it through force. That just doesn't work out well in our experience.
DIAZ: For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz reporting.
