1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose the Trump administration's dangerous military escalation in Venezuela and support the war powers resolution filed by Senators Schiff, Paul, Kaine, and Schumer to block military engagement without congressional approval. The administration's seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker this week represents a significant escalation that lawmakers from both parties recognize as reckless. Senator Chris Coons warned that Trump is "sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela," while Republican Senator Rand Paul stated plainly that "seizing someone's oil tanker is an initiation of war." When Trump told reporters "We keep the oil, I guess!" about the seized vessel, he revealed motivations that have nothing to do with the administration's stated justification of interdicting drugs. Senator Chris Van Hollen, who serves on the Senate foreign relations committee, correctly identified that this action exposes the administration's cover story about drug interdiction as "a big lie" and shows this is "really about regime change by force." The facts support this assessment. US drug enforcement officials noted in a May report that fentanyl primarily enters through Chinese producers and Mexican criminal organizations, while cocaine mainly comes from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, not Venezuela. Yet the administration has deployed the largest naval presence in the Caribbean since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and conducted bombing campaigns that have killed more than 80 people. The hypocrisy is stark. When Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in November, US Central Command condemned it as a "blatant violation of international law." We cannot apply different standards based on which country serves our geopolitical interests. I urge you to publicly oppose this military escalation and cosponsor the war powers resolution to prevent unauthorized war with Venezuela. Congress must reassert its constitutional authority over decisions of war and peace before this administration drags us into another catastrophic conflict.