Senator Paul Vows to Continue Fight Against Trump’s Unilateral Military Actions in Latin America
Despite a recent Senate defeat, Senator Rand Paul intends to reintroduce a resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s authority to conduct military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking organizations, particularly focusing on actions targeting Venezuela. The Kentucky Republican told TIME he plans to bring an updated resolution to a vote as soon as next week, seeking broader bipartisan support to limit the expansion of these operations.
Paul expressed deep ethical concerns regarding the escalating military campaign. “The idea that you’re going to treat humans as just, you know, as refuse, that, ‘Oh, we don’t care if we kill them because they’re not Americans and they can be on the high seas’ is such a callous position,” he stated in an interview Tuesday. “It’s an issue that I am not going to give up on.”
The conflict stems from a series of approved military strikes over the past two months, resulting in at least 57 deaths. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that strikes against four more boats in the Pacific, off the coasts of Central and South America, had killed 14 people, marking the highest single-day death toll since the operations became public last month.
President Trump has framed the strikes as a necessary war against drug cartels, intended to stem the flow of narcotics into the United States. However, experts have questioned the efficacy of this approach. Concerns have been raised that the vessels targeted, as depicted in released videos, lack the fuel capacity to reach U.S. shores, and that the attacks are unlikely to significantly disrupt the drug trade.
The core of the dispute lies in the constitutional division of powers. Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly grants Congress the authority to declare war. Earlier this month, the Senate rejected a resolution co-sponsored by Paul and Democratic senators, intended to halt the Administration’s bombing campaign by a vote of 48-51. Only Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Paul in supporting the measure.
Paul’s forthcoming resolution will be more narrowly focused on Trump’s actions against Venezuela, a strategic shift intended to attract more Republican support. The previous attempt, defeated on October 8, would have prohibited military action against non-state organizations involved in drug trafficking. “If you want to have the rules of engagement where you blow people up without asking questions—that’s war—but the prerogative of war is exclusively the legislature,” Paul asserted.
The escalating situation is underscored by a growing military presence in the Caribbean, near the coast of Venezuela. The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford has been redirected from the Mediterranean Sea toward Latin America. On October 15, Trump indicated he was considering expanding the military campaign to include targets on land and had authorized the CIA to conduct operations within Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government, on Sunday, claimed to have apprehended mercenaries allegedly directed by American intelligence to orchestrate a false-flag operation. These claims remain unverified, and the CIA has declined to comment on the matter.
Speculation is mounting that the Trump Administration’s ultimate objective is the removal of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. Paul cautioned against such a course of action, arguing it would contradict Trump’s stated reluctance to engage in “regime change wars.” He also drew parallels to past administrations, noting, “The idea of just killing people without any kind of process is not new to Donald Trump, but he’s building on the legacy of President Obama as far as this goes.”
Senator Lindsay Graham, speaking on Sunday, revealed that Trump’s “end game” is to prevent Venezuela and Colombia from serving as conduits for drugs that threaten the United States, and to neutralize Maduro’s alleged role in the narcotics trade.
Paul is actively seeking to galvanize Republican opposition to the President’s military actions in the region, emphasizing the need for Congressional authorization. He acknowledged that even if a war powers resolution were to pass both chambers of Congress, a presidential veto remains highly probable, requiring a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to override. Despite these obstacles, Paul remains resolute. “The debate itself is still important whether we win or not,” he concluded.
