By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
The United States’ surprise capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores early Saturday morning generated both negative and supportive statements from Jewish officeholders around the world. The Maduros were put aboard the amphibius assault ship USS Iwo Jima and then an airplane for a trip to New York where they will face charges of trafficking drugs, especially cocaine and fentanyl, to the United States.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo issued a statement saying her government “vigorously condemns and rejects the U.S. military actions carried out unilaterally by the armed forces of the United States of America against targets in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” She cited Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter stating that member countries “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…” Sheinbaum called for dialogue not force. Trump later told Fox News that notwithstanding the fact that Sheinbaum is “a good woman,” the cartels “are running Mexico.” He said Mexico’s President is “very frightened of the cartels, they’re running Mexico, and I’ve asked her numerous times, ‘would you like us to take out the cartels?’” According to Trump, Sheinbaum replies, “No, no, no Mr. President, no, no, no please.” … So, said Trump, “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.”
United States Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) stated, “The administration has assured me three separate times that it was not pursuing regime change or taking military action in Venezuela. Clearly, they are not being straight with Americans. The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans. The American people have seen this before [in Iraq and Afghanistan] and paid the devastating price.”
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), whose district includes many constituents from Venezuela, said Maduro’s capture was welcome news for Venezuela but pointed out that President Trump had not given Congress advance warning of the attack contrary to established procedures. “The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime,” said Wasserman Schultz, who co-chairs the Congressional Venezuelan Democracy Caucus.
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-California) sits on both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives. The San Diego representative described the operation to capture Maduro as an “illegal and unauthorized military strike.” She said it “won’t actually mitigate drug trafficking in the United States” because Venezuela “plays virtually no role in producing or trafficking fentanyl.” She said the operation “risks blowback and retaliation on U.S. service members and the American people and entangles the United States in yet another costly and unnecessary war by the President who campaigned on ending them.”
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Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Amnesty International and 50 other non-governmental agencies have protested Israel’s government’s banning of 37 aid groups from supplying assistance to Gaza. They say the move was a part of Israel’s deliberate policy to curtail life-saving aid to millions of Palestinians who’ll lack food, shelter and medical aid.
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed Gen. Kyrlo Budanov as his chief of staff, replacing Andril Yermak in the fallout of a government corruption scandal. He next appointed Oleh Iyashchenko to replace Budanov as head of Ukraine’s military intelligence.
NATIONAL
Democratic U.S. Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have urged their Republican colleagues to stand up for the traditional role of Congress as a separate branch of government rather than continuing to rubberstamp all of President Trump’s initiatives. Bennet detailed how Trump is punishing Colorado for not pardoning Tina Peters, a county clerk convicted of permitting access to voting machines for Trump
partisans. Trump has vilified Colorado Gov. Jared Polis as a “scumbag” who should “rot in Hell.” In retaliation, Trump subsequently vetoed an unrelated bill authorizing a project to provide an unanimously approved congressional bill to provide clean water to a rural part of the state, within Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s district. “This isn’t governing. It’s a revenge tour. It’s unacceptable,” Bennet said on social media. “It is absolutely outrageous, and the Senate Republicans know it is outrageous too.” Blumenthal, who has been investigating whether any conflicts-of-interest exist among donors who have contributed to Trump’s project to construct a massive ballroom at the White House, commented: “At its core, Trump’s authoritarianism is enabled by his utter contempt for the law. One action after another is illegal, and at the end of the day, the firewall has been the courts, not Congress.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World