American Senator Rand Paul, from the Republican Party, cited President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (PL) when questioning his country’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, about the operation in which the then Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces on the 3rd.
Rubio participated in a hearing in the US Senate, where he spoke about the Donald Trump administration’s actions in relation to Venezuela.
Paul, despite being from the president’s party, joined Democratic congressmen in criticizing the operation in Venezuela, claiming that the American Executive needs Congressional approval to declare war on another country. The Trump administration claims that the action in Venezuela was a one-off and not the start of a conflict.
“I think we are violating both the spirit and the law of the Constitution by bombing a capital, locking down the country and removing elected officials. And we certainly wouldn’t tolerate that, nor would I, if someone did that to us,” Paul said.
Rubio responded, citing the charges that Maduro faces in US federal court (narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and explosive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and explosive devices) and remembering that the former dictator rigged the 2024 presidential election to remain in power.
“We did not remove an elected official. We removed someone who was not elected and who, in fact, was an indicted drug trafficker in the United States,” said the Secretary of State.
Paul interrupted, saying Maduro was indicted “under the laws” of the United States. At this point, he cited Lula and Bolsonaro.
“You see, Bolsonaro says that [Lula] da Silva is not the real president of Brazil. Our president said that [Joe] Biden was not the real president. Hillary Clinton said in 2016 that Trump was not the president,” said the Republican senator.
“So you have these arguments, and I agree with you, it probably was, and most likely was, certainly was, a bad election [na Venezuela]. He [Maduro] was not actually elected. But at the same time, if that’s our premise, [se] you don’t need to come to us [ao Senado] because it is an operation against drugs [que ocorreu na Venezuela], [porque] we’re just removing someone, you can see where that leads. And it leads to chaos,” said Paul.
“And that’s why we have rules like the Constitution, so we don’t get to the point where presidents can do whatever they want,” he added. Rubio did not respond to this comment and the hearing continued with questions from other senators.
