{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4860", "What Trump\u2019s latest dramatic Venezuela move means", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Chrissy Houlahan", "H001085", "houlahan.house.gov", "houlahan", "https://houlahan.house.gov/press/documentquery.aspx", "page_html", "Originally published on CNN.com\n\nAnalysis by Stephen Collinson\n\nThe Trump administration\u2019s seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic twists yet in a military pressure campaign against Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n\nThe boarding of a foreign ship is an unusual step and expands a US operation already highlighted by strikes against more than 20 boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that the administration claims carried drug traffickers.\n\nEarly reports suggest the swoop by US Coast Guard personnel, with the backing of the Navy and law enforcement agencies, poses fewer legal and constitutional concerns than the campaign against the boats and Trump\u2019s imminent threats of military action on Venezuelan soil.\n\nThe vessel, the Skipper, was seized in international waters and was carrying Venezuelan crude, a senior US official said. A federal judge had previously issued a warrant for its seizure because of alleged links to Iran-backed terror groups.\n\nStill, Trump\u2019s relish in announcing the take-over of the ship and Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s release of a video showing US personnel rappelling onto its decks from a helicopter underscore the political significance of the moment.\n\nWith his characteristic flair for the dramatic, Trump announced to the press that the US had boarded a \u201clarge tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually.\u201d\n\nWhile the tanker might not have been directly related to the current showdown between Trump and Maduro, its interdiction will be seen in the context of a massive US naval build-up in the Caribbean, which is part of an apparent attempt to force Maduro out of power or to convince his subordinates to oust him.\n\nWhat\u2019s at stake for Trump and Venezuela\n\nMillions of Venezuelans would welcome Maduro\u2019s departure after grim years under an authoritarian regime that has impoverished the country, imposed repression and forced millions of people to flee poverty and persecution.\n\nSo, the Washington controversy over Trump\u2019s intentions in Venezuela is less about whether Maduro\u2019s exit after ignoring his loss in a democratic election would be beneficial and more about whether the US president is acting legally. Critics fear Trump is preparing to embroil America in another prolonged foreign policy misadventure as he again seeks to flex unchecked executive power.\n\nLegal questions are most acute over the strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that have killed 87 people. The administration insists that it is justified in using legal military force against what it brands as narco-terrorists that threaten American national security. But Venezuela is not regarded as a major fentanyl trafficking route into the US as the administration insists. And rights groups warn that the boat attacks infringe on the due process of the victims and amount to state sanctioned murder by the administration.\n\nOne of those strikes, on September 2, prompted Democrats and human rights groups to accuse the administration of a war crime, as it involved a follow-up strike that reportedly killed survivors of the initial US attack.\n\nDemocrats are intensifying a campaign to force Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to turn over video of the attack to Congress. Trump had earlier said on camera he had no problems with such a step but later denied making the comment.\n\nNews of the tanker seizure and deepening intrigue over the double-tap strike came as doubt still shrouded Trump\u2019s aims in Venezuela. The symbolic weight of the massive US naval force off the country, which includes the most advanced US aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, means any resolution to the crisis that does not lead to Maduro\u2019s ouster would be a rebuke to US power and Trump\u2019s prestige.\n\nTrump has meanwhile repeatedly warned that strikes against what he says are drug trafficking sites on land could start soon. But in an interview with Politico this week, he declined to discuss military strategy and said opaquely that he wanted the Venezuelan people treated well and \u201cto be respected.\u201d\n\nCNN reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration was working on plans for what would happen in Venezuela in the event that Maduro fell or left. Critics of the Trump approach have drawn comparisons to the US failure to prepare for regime change in Iraq in 2003 after the US invasion. Some analysts fear that Venezuela could descend into violence and instability if the Maduro regime falls, and that it could prompt a refugee crisis. But the situation there bears little comparison to post-war Baghdad.\n\nIn another development that could increase pressure on Maduro\u2019s regime, Venezuelan Opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado dramatically left hiding in the country and traveled to Oslo, where her daughter had earlier accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.\n\nMaduro\u2019s government had warned she would be considered a fugitive should she leave Venezuela. But her emergence in the outside world may also present the Trump administration with new opportunities to highlight her cause.\n\nShip boarding \u2018normal,\u2019 former US intelligence official says\n\nThe US seizure of the tanker Skipper took place on the basis of a search warrant related to past activity transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X. She said FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard were involved with support from the Department of Defense.\n\nThe capture of the tanker is certain to be seen throughout the region as an implicit warning to other tanker captains of the risks in loading up in Venezuela and operating around its waters, as well as a blow to the shadow fleet of tankers that traffic sanctioned oil for nations like Iran.\n\nVenezuela has some of the world\u2019s biggest reserves of crude oil, and its illicit sales are a key source of income for its regime. The first and second Trump administrations and the Biden administration maintained multiple layers of sanctions against the Maduro regime for its suppression of democracy, including against the state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA.\n\nThe government in Caracas condemned the seizure, arguing that it laid bare the true motivation of Trump\u2019s pressure campaign. \u201cIt is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,\u201d a government statement said.\n\nBut Beth Sanner, a former senior US intelligence official, told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper that the seizure of a Venezuelan oil tankers was \u201cabsolutely normal\u201d as part of an attempt to prevent the regime transporting sanctioned oil. \u201cIn the past, everybody has wanted to pick up these kinds of tankers, but we haven\u2019t had the assets in the region to do it,\u201d Sanner said.\n\nDemocrats on Capitol Hill are unwilling to take any of actions related to Venezuela at face value.\n\nAsked on CNN whether the US was now closer to a war with Venezuela, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said, \u201cHow could we possibly not be closer when we are rappelling men and women from our military out of helicopters and descending on civilian tankers flying the flag of another nation? It is definitely escalatory; there is no other way to put it.\u201d\n\nShe added that if Trump\u2019s aim was regime change through military force, he was constitutionally required to get an authorization from Congress \u2014 although she believed that such a step was not in US interests.\n\nSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer meanwhile told Tapper on \u201cThe Lead\u201d that Trump\u2019s rhetoric was so unclear that it was impossible to know what his true intentions are. \u201cPresident Trump throws out so many different things, in so many different ways, you don\u2019t know what the heck he is talking about,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cIf Maduro would just flee on his own, everyone would like that.\u201d But Schumer added: \u201cYou cannot say, \u2018I endorse this, I endorse that\u2019 when Trump is all over the lot.\u201d\n\nLike so much in Trump\u2019s second term, there is little public transparency about the president\u2019s goals that often seem to depend on his personal whims. Trump prizes unpredictability. He\u2019s thus made no attempt to explain to Americans why so many service personnel are on ships off the Venezuelan coast or what the expensive deployment is supposed to achieve.\n\nIf the president were to successfully oust Maduro and transition Venezuela to democracy, he could claim a significant political win. He\u2019d also cement his goal of exerting American power throughout the Western Hemisphere, an aspiration consistent with his recently unveiled National Security Strategy. This appears both an attempt to reshape Latin America in his own MAGA image and a more traditional US strategy to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region.\n\nBut history shows that even in extreme circumstances, dictatorial regimes constructed over decades are often more durable than outsiders believe. The Venezuelan government has been compared to a many layered criminal operation \u2014 with key members having huge financial stakes in perpetuating their own power. And while many outsiders hope that Trump\u2019s pressure will lead to the rise of the country\u2019s rightful democratic rulers, nothing is certain.\n\nBut the seizing of the tanker cranked the pressure on Maduro up yet another notch. And it led Trump further down what is beginning to look like an inexorable path to a confrontation in which he is investing huge personal credibility.", 1, "2026-04-08T14:14:11Z", "2026-04-08T14:23:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4860"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4599808491766453, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}