Democratic US lawmakers say they were misled on Venezuela, demand a plan [View all]

Source: Reuters

January 3, 2026 7:32 PM EST Updated 11 hours ago


WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Democratic members of the U.S. Congress said on Saturday that senior officials of President Donald Trump's administration had misled them during recent briefings about plans for Venezuela by insisting they were not planning regime change in Caracas.

The U.S. attacked Venezuela and deposed its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro in an overnight operation, in Washington's most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democrats' leader in the Senate, said he had been told in three classified briefings that the administration was not pursuing regime change or planning to take military action in Venezuela.

"They assured me that they were not pursuing those things," Schumer said on a call with reporters. "Clearly they're not being straight with the American people." Schumer said he had not been briefed by Saturday afternoon and called for the administration to fill in not just congressional and intelligence committee leaders, but also all lawmakers by early next week. "They've kept everyone in the total dark," he said.

Lawmakers said they wanted more guidance on Trump's plans for Venezuela, after he told reporters he would put the country under U.S. control, for now. "No serious plan has been presented for how such an extraordinary undertaking would work or what it will cost the American people. History offers no shortage of warnings about the costs – human, strategic, and moral – of assuming we can govern another nation by force," said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/democratic-lawmakers-say-they-were-misled-venezuela-2026-01-03/