CLEVELAND — As the debate continues in the nation's capital over the weekend arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife on charges of narco-terrorism, a group of Northeast Ohioans took to the four corners of Lakeside and East 9th Street in Cleveland outside of the Celebrezze Federal building to voice their displeasure with the military operation.
Some, like Wendy During of Cleveland, saw the move as a grab for the country's oil.
"Yes, there are problems in Venezuela, but we don't need oil; we have plenty of oil," she said. "You're just creating more chaos."
Others expressed concerns about the administration's long-term strategy for Venezuela and its impact on their affordability concerns at home.
"What's the play with Venezuela?" asked Ellen Franks of Shaker Heights. "I mean, is this another Iraq and Afghanistan? And [President Trump's] talking about invading Greenland and Cuba now? Where is this going to end, and how does it really help Americans at this point?"
What the protesters weren't doing, she said, was defending Maduro or his actions during his reign over Venezuela. Something presidents of both parties sought to end with his arrest. Former President Joe Biden, just one year ago this week upping the reward for his conviction to $25 million.
"We agree with that, we totally agree that Maduro needed to go, it's just how it happened and not engaging Congress, which is unlawful."
Senator Bernie Moreno was in the room at Mar-a-Lago Saturday morning when the president announced the operation, though he didn't say when he first learned of it. As for the question of whether Congress should have been asked to sign off on it, since it involved the U.S. military?
"No absolutely not," said Moreno. "If you look at Article II of the Constitution it's crystal clear he was exercising the military to conduct a law enforcement operation. He had total and complete authorization under the constitution to do that. Congress must declare war, we're not at war with Venezuela."
And that's why Moreno shoots down any comparisons that have been made to U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
"The only thing I can say is anybody who draws a comparison between what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan is patently idiotic," Moreno said. "This is not an ideological issue; these are people that were being oppressed by a ruthless dictator who was really a drug trafficker."
"Let's make it clear for your viewers," Moreno told News 5, "this is a law enforcement exercise. We went in and captured an indicted drug cartel member, who, by the way, Joe Biden had put a $25 million bounty on his head. Barack Obama had called for his removal in an executive order. The difference is President Trump doesn't bark, he actually does what he says he's going to do."
Moreno said he doesn't see the U.S. getting bogged down in Venezuela, just staying long enough to supervise the country's recovery, then transition to a democratically elected government.
"The key thing here is we're going to use their resources to do that, not ours," he added.
Moreno said the operation sends a message to other third-world dictators and he believes Cuba, now cut off from Venezuelan oil, will feel the impact.
"That's really important for your viewers to know, too. Cuba had taken over Venezuela," he said. "Their takeover of Venezuela was about feeding the communist dictatorship in Cuba and now they have no money. They have no oil revenue to feed this ruthless dictatorship in Cuba. So I think Cuba will crumble because they no longer have access to their gigantic piggy bank called Venezuela."
