By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday that he does not expect the U.S. military to send troops into Venezuela following an operation over the weekend that led to the capture and arrest of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro.
“This is not a regime change. This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now, and we are hopeful that they will be able to correct their action,” Johnson told reporters following the closed-door session at the Capitol.
“We don’t expect troops on the ground. We don’t expect direct involvement in any other way beyond just coercing the new, the interim government, to get that going.”
The Monday briefing to both parties of Congress included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Some members of Congress from the Democratic Party emerged from the Capitol meeting with more questions as the Trump administration continues to maintain a naval presence off the Venezuelan coast and urges U.S. companies to reinvest in the country’s underperforming oil industry.
President Donald Trump has also said that his administration would, in effect, be running Venezuela.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News on Tuesday that there are still “real questions” as to what could happen next in Venezuela.
She stressed that Venezuela and the world are both “better off” without Maduro in charge of the country, adding that she hopes there is a “path toward democratic elections at some point.” She raised questions about whether the ouster of Maduro, who ran a socialist regime, would simply result in another authoritarian regime in charge of Venezuela.
After Maduro’s capture, his former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was named by the Venezuelan Supreme Court as the interim leader of the country. In a Monday statement, Rodriguez said she would work toward cooperating with the United States, after Trump warned her that she could face a fate similar to Maduro if her efforts do not align with U.S. national security interests.
“We’ve raised real questions” about Trump’s recent comments about sending the military to other Latin American countries as well as his comments about the United States acquiring Greenland from Denmark, Shaheen said, referring to what was discussed in the congressional briefing.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said in a Monday statement that the briefing “posed far more questions than it ever answered.”
A war powers resolution that would prohibit U.S. military action in Venezuela without approval from Congress is heading for a vote this week in the Senate, Schumer said in an interview.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
