Venezuela

Eric Boehm | 1.5.2026 1:30 PM

As the Senate considered a resolution that would have blocked the Trump administration from using military force against Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly gave a classified briefing to key members of Congress.

In that November briefing, Rubio "indicated that the administration is not currently preparing to target Venezuela directly and didn't have a proper legal argument for doing so," The Washington Post reported at the time. Similarly, CNN reported that administration officials told lawmakers that "the US is not currently planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn't have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets," and that the legal justification offered for strikes against suspected drug boats traveling near Venezuela "does not extend to land targets."

In the early hours of Saturday morning, however, American forces did attack a land target in Venezuela: Fort Tiuna, the military compound where Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was holed up.

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