Senator Shelley Moore Capito says she feels assured about U.S. actions on Venezuela following an all-senators meeting earlier this week with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“The briefing really answered a lot of questions that I had, and made me realize that this, this exercise, is going to have international impacts that are going to be very good,” Capito, R-W.Va., said during a briefing today in response to a MetroNews question.
The closed-door session took place Tuesday, and conflict has ramped up since then. President Trump announced a naval blockade on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, following the seizure of a tanker.
Meanwhile, U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats have continued. The latest attack brought the total number of known boat strikes to 26 while at least 99 people have been killed.
The administration has maintained those boats are being operated by drug traffickers. However, the administration has faced criticism for a lack of transparency and for not providing specific names or evidence to the public or to lawmakers.
“The one thing I did learn, and I think the American people should know in more detail, is the targeting of these vessels is not just a ‘Hey, let’s just blow this boat up,'” Capito said.
“It is very detailed. It is very legally challenged at every step. It is, through the intelligence — both signal intelligence, but also intelligence on the ground — certifiable that these are narco-terrorists that are peddling deadly drugs around the world, particularly into our country.”
Capito continued, “So guess what’s happened since they began taking out these boats and and the people on them? It’s slowing, significantly slowing. And that should be good news for everybody.”
Trump has linked the attacks on drug vessels to the fentanyl crisis. However, most illegal fentanyl enters the United States from Mexico, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment does not list Venezuela as a fentanyl source or transit country.
Venezuela serves as a major transit hub for drugs originating from Colombia, particularly cocaine and marijuana, with experts saying most of that is shipped to Europe.
“I feel that after the briefing, and I’ve said this all along, that the narcoterrorism that’s going on from Venezuela is killing Americans. They’re bringing drugs in here. I mean, you could say it’s going to Europe and everywhere else. I think it’s coming here and/or going to Mexico and coming here,” Capito said.
“And I don’t want any more fentanyl or deadly drugs on our streets. And I applaud the president for being proactive here.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is widely considered a dictator who retained power last year even as the opposition party and its leader, María Corina Machado, disputed election results. Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, lives in hiding.
Trump has been vocal with demands for Maduro to step down, and has accused Venezuela’s government of drug trafficking and terrorism.
Trump has said Maduro’s “days are numbered” and repeatedly warned that strikes inside Venezuela could come “soon.”
“And so I think if we can disrupt the anti-Americanism, however we can do it, on the high seas I’m all right with that. I think we’re sending statements more than anything else, quite honestly, to say that we’re serious about this, and the country of Venezuela needs to get serious about it.”
House and Senate war powers resolutions requiring congressional authorization for military action against Venezuela could soon be ready for votes.
“Right now, the legal authorities are telling us the War Powers Act is not necessary in this,” Capito said. “These are things that have actually been occurring over the last 20 years in terms of targeting terrorists and taking them out and the process by which they do it.”
Greg Noone, a political science professor at Fairmont State University and senior legal advisor for the Public International Law and Policy Group, said on MetroNews Talkline this week that the situation in Venezuela is complicated.
He said drug traffickers are clearly a scourge, “but the problem is that once you start taking law enforcement and saying it’s an armed conflict and, therefore, you’re allowed to do more — in other words, kill them without any due process, any trial — that becomes problematic.
“The fact of the matter is, this has been a law enforcement matter; we have done interdiction for a very long time, very successfully. There’s a whole process the Coast Guard follows with support from the Navy where you hail a vessel. If they don’t stop you can fire warning shots. If that doesn’t work, you can use disabling fire.”
Most of the drugs smuggled into the United States come through legal ports of entry, Noone said. “The fact of the matter is, they’re coming in through the checkpoints in vehicles often driven by U.S. citizens or other people who have the legal right to entry into the United States,” he said.
He continued, “That is a legitimate problem, but by solving it by blowing up boats in the middle of the Caribbean is really not the way to do it because we’re losing our ability to collect intelligence of the guys we capture — coupled with the fact that Venezuela is not where fentanyl is coming from.
“Drugs coming out of Venezuela are going to the Caribbean islands and going off to Europe. The cocaine that comes into the U.S. is coming from Columbia. So if we want to take that approach, we’re in the wrong ocean altogether. Secondly, China produces fentanyl, and the Chinese fentanyl mainly goes to Mexico and is coming in through the ports of entry.”