Republicans in the US Senate have blocked a resolution that would have prevented President Donald Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional approval, a day after administration officials told lawmakers that Washington is not currently planning attacks on the South American country.
The Senate voted 51 to 49, largely along party lines, against a measure that would have put the war powers resolution to a vote.
Only two Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure, demonstrating the party's support for Trump's military buildup in the southern Caribbean after two months of deadly attacks on ships off Venezuela.
Attacks on ships
The Trump administration claims that since the beginning of September, US forces have carried out at least 16 attacks on ships in the Pacific and southern Caribbean, killing more than 65 people.
The long campaign has heightened concerns that Trump will launch an attack on Venezuela itself, prompting the introduction of a bipartisan resolution. Its main organizers were Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California, and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Hina reports.
Trump's statements
Trump has been raising the possibility of ground attacks on Venezuela for weeks, saying at one point that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in the country.
He later denied considering attacks inside Venezuela, even as Washington continued to bolster its military presence in the Caribbean with fighter jets, warships and thousands of troops.
Reporting to Congress
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed congressional leaders, Republican chairmen and leading Democrats on the national security committees on Wednesday on the issue.
"Based on that briefing, I don't think the administration wants to go to war with Venezuela," said Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
"But then again, President Trump is quite known for his - how would I put it - chaotic approach to things. He's a person who changes his mind very quickly. So who knows?" he said.
Legal justification
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said the legal justification for attacks on ships put forward by administration officials does not include justification for direct attacks on Venezuelan territory.
"Nothing in the legal opinion even mentions Venezuela," Warner told reporters as he left a briefing Wednesday.
A senior administration official has said that strikes on ground targets would be justified on national security grounds. But some legal experts say the strikes could violate international law, as well as U.S. laws against murder and prohibitions on assassination.
Criticism from Congress
Members of Congress from both parties complained that they were given scant information, such as who was killed, evidence of drug trafficking, the cost of the force buildup or the Trump administration's long-term strategy for Latin America.
The administration has stated that the targets were "narco-terrorists" transporting drugs that endanger Americans, without providing evidence or a public explanation of the legal justification for attacking the ships instead of stopping them and arresting those on them.
The US Constitution requires every president to obtain Congressional approval before launching a long-term military operation.
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