Washington, Dec.—U.S. Congressman Joaquín Castro warned this Wednesday that the naval blockade ordered by President Donald Trump against Venezuela is, without a doubt, an act of war.
Castro, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Texas, is one of the voices within the Capitol that reacted to the Republican president’s decision, saying he is leading the country into “a war that Congress never authorized and that the American people do not want,” according to his post on the social media platform X.
The representative anticipated that today, Thursday, the House will vote on a resolution sponsored by his fellow party members Jim McGovern, Thomas Massie, and himself to “order the president to end hostilities against Venezuela.”
“All members of the House of Representatives,” he said, “will have the opportunity to decide whether they support sending Americans to another regime-change war.”
A similar opinion was expressed by fellow Democratic Representative Nydia Velázquez on the same platform: “Trump is threatening a naval blockade of Venezuelan oil, which constitutes an act of war,” she emphasized.
“We have seen this strategy before. This is not about drugs or making the United States safer; it is about regime change,” she added.
Velázquez stressed that “Americans do not want war with Venezuela” and insisted that “Congress must act now and stop this.”
For his part, colleague Ro Khanna noted that he was “raising alarms about the increased presence of our Navy, our bombers, and the Marine Corps in the Caribbean.”
“We need to oppose a regime-change war in Venezuela and invest in jobs here at home,” he stated in his message on X.
For Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, “Trump’s war with Venezuela is not aimed at stopping drug traffickers,” warning that the real objective is “regime change to seize Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves for his billionaire friends.”
He added that this will “put Americans in danger for what Trump cares about most: profits.”
Meanwhile, another senator from the same party stated that the classified briefing held this Tuesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed that the Trump administration has no legal or national security justification to attack alleged drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a video posted on the same platform and online that the two cabinet officials admitted to legislators that the ships accused of drug trafficking were believed to be carrying cocaine, not fentanyl.
Furthermore, Rubio and Hegseth indicated that intelligence suggested the ships were headed to Europe, not the United States, which contradicts the pretext used by Trump for the attacks.
From the Real Story
Trump's hysteria against Venezuela has reached its peak. Yesterday, the Republican leader ordered a total and complete blockade on the entry and exit of oil tankers to and from Venezuela following the announcement designating the Venezuelan government as a "terrorist organization."
Trump, who assumes ownership over the country’s resources, claimed that “the illegitimate Maduro regime uses the oil from these stolen fields to finance itself, narcoterrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.” All these resources, —he stated in this escalated message— “must be returned to the United States immediately.”
However, many critics and political analysts recall that the United States is the true party responsible for the illegal retention of Venezuelan oil assets abroad.
This new and arbitrary designation adds to those already placed on the Tren de Aragua (which, by the way, hasn’t been talked about much recently) and the Cartel of the Suns (which experts classify as an invention), organizations that Washington claims are led by Maduro.
Incidentally, Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, made headlines with explosive statements to Vanity Fair, asserting that the U.S. president has the personality of an alcoholic and intends to continue bombing ships in the Caribbean until his Venezuelan counterpart “throws in the towel.” (Information from Prensa Latina)
