Senator: No Evidence U.S. Is Planning Venezuela Military Intervention

A prominent member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday that he has seen no sign the Trump administration is preparing a military intervention in Venezuela as it continues applying pressure to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

"I have seen no evidence that the U.S. is preparing for military plans," Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters. The Virginia Democrat returned this weekend from a trip to the Colombia-Venezuela border, where he observed what he has described as a "humanitarian crisis" driven by civil unrest and widespread power and communications outages.

"You do that as a last resort," Kaine added. "There is no plan that I have seen as a member of the Armed Services Committee."

Protests have spread across the country since the aftermath of the controversial January election in which Maduro claimed victory. The Trump administration has endorsed opposition leader Juan Guaido and has since imposed new, harsh sanctions against top Venezuelan officials.

Kaine's comments follow growing speculation that Trump is considering a U.S. military operation to accelerate the overthrow of the Maduro regime and allow Guaido to ascend to the presidency.

In January, photographers captured a page of national security adviser John Bolton's notepad bearing the words, "5,000 troops to Colombia." Trump in September said that the Maduro regime "could be toppled very quickly by the military if the military decides to do that."

More recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced last week that the U.S. was withdrawing the remaining diplomats and staff from its embassy in Caracas after evacuating all dependents earlier this year. While not necessarily indicative of an offensive campaign, such a move usually precedes American military action in a country.

While Kaine supports the economic pressure the Trump administration has imposed on Venezuela and its gathering support from dozens of foreign countries, he criticized Trump and Bolton's "loose talk about military intervention." Kaine also criticized the decision to close the embassy, what he considers "a last resort."

"A U.S. military intervention is not the right strategy," Kaine said.

Kaine has been among the most vocal critics of Presidents Barack Obama and Trump's deploying troops to foreign conflicts without the explicit approval of Congress – a responsibility technically reserved for the legislature.