Council President Natali Fani-González is outraged over this weekend’s events in her native Venezuela. But she is still happy to learn that President Nicholas Maduro is no longer president.
Fani-González lived in Venezuela until she was 16 years old and came to Maryland without knowing any English. She still has brothers and other close relatives living in the South American country.
“As a Venezuelan American, I do not support the Maduro regime. He did not win the last election. He should not be the head of state,” she told MCM. However, she stressed, “I do believe it’s up to Venezuelans to remove him in a peaceful way.”
“I do not support what Donald Trump did.” She added that during his presidential campaign Trump said he wouldn’t invade any countries. Yet he did so without Congressional approval. she pointed out.
“The entire action, how it was done, was illegal. It was reckless and people died. I wanted Maduro to be gone, but not this way,” she said concerning the recent events of Operation Absolute Resolve. What happened this weekend, “It’s illegal. It is something I will not support, and I cannot support,” she said.
What if China conducts a similar operation in Taiwan, she asked. “You could see this in many other countries. This is why we have international laws.”
Fani-González said Trump’s action in Venezuela is all about regime change and “controlling petroleum and minerals and natural gas” in Venezuela. “This is what it is about. It’s not about democracy or protecting Venezuelans in Venezuela.” Controlling the country’s natural resources is being done “to help his friends, the American companies. That is the true interest.”
She continues to stay in close contact with her brothers in Caracas. She described them as “concerned about what is going to happen next.”
The Venezuelan people deserve to have a “real transparent election,” she said.
Fani-González remains cautiously optimistic that the interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president of the country, will be helpful. “I find her to be very pragmatic.”
Fani-González dreams of the day when there is democracy in her native land, and the Venezuelan Embassy in American reopens so that she can cast her vote.
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Fani-González Fears ‘There is No Way Forward’ for Her Native Venezuela
As of 2021, 2% of the Hispanic population from South America are from Venezuela, according to a study by Montgomery Planning.
Here are other reactions around the county:
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8) said Trump’s action “violated the Constitution by conducting a military strike against Venezuela and kidnapping its president.
“Under our Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war because the Framers believed that matters of war and peace for our country, life and death for our military personnel, belong with all the elected representatives of the people, not with any one man. The Constitution does not allow the president of the United States to unilaterally launch a war to take over another country, no matter how vicious its leader or authoritarian its regime,” Raskin wrote in a statement.
He also wrote, ““Nicolás Maduro is a brutal tyrant who has caused great suffering to the Venezuelan people. That is not in dispute. There are equally brutal dictators, of course, all over the world, including in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other countries. If Trump can invade Venezuela’s sovereign boundaries, take over the country and kidnap Maduro on the grounds that he is a vicious dictator, any other country with the will and the way can do the same thing elsewhere. Indeed, Vladimir Putin must be celebrating this act of naked imperialism because it gives validation to its own filthy imperialist war on Ukraine. China harbors similar designs perhaps on Taiwan. America should be leading the world in upholding the rules-based international order, not leading the world in trashing it.”
Maryland Delegate Marc Korman
Del. Marc Korman (District 16) wrote on Facebook, “My own concerns with this president’s international actions yesterday are not because of any type of respect or appreciation for Maduro. Just as I assume this president’s on again, off again distaste for the war in Iraq does not mean he thought Saddam Hussein was doing a good job. Maduro was an authoritarian leader defying democratic elections and part of international efforts to undermine the United States, including with the drug trade. I understand why many Venezuelans around the world would celebrate his downfall.”
He cited the book, “Blowback” by Chalmers Johnson, about the consequences of the United States involvement in international actions. Korman wonder, “What will the blowback be of a president deciding that it can swoop into a country and knock out its leadership without allies or Congress? What will the blowback be of trying to run a South American country from West Palm Beach? Hopefully the next 100 steps are as well planned and executed as the first Delta Force one, but history suggests otherwise.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen issued a statement: “The American people did not ask for this act of war to bring about regime change in Venezuela – nor did Congress authorize it. President Trump has put our troops in harm’s way, and he has not provided a clear, fact-based rationale for these actions, nor the long-term strategy following these strikes. This Administration owes the American people and the Congress immediate answers. This act of war is a grave abuse of power by the President. The Trump Administration is repeating the worst mistakes of our past and endangering American lives – and their motive for doing so is a farce. Trump seized Maduro and his wife just weeks after he pardoned former Honduran President – a notorious convicted drug kingpin – Juan Orlando Hernández. Maduro is a dictator, but his regime did not pose the immediate threat necessary to warrant U.S. military action on foreign soil without Congressional approval. This is not about demolishing a dictatorship, as we’ve seen Trump cozy up to dictators around the world. This is about trying to grab Venezuela’s oil for Trump’s billionaire buddies. Congress must not abdicate its constitutional authority and allow control of the world’s most powerful military to fall into just one set of hands.
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