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Senate moves to check Trump’s war powers as Venezuela makes announcement on political prisoners
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At least 100 dead in US attack: Venezuelan official
01:27 • Source: CNN
At least 100 dead in US attack: Venezuelan official
01:27
• Limiting Trump’s war powers: A handful of Republicans joined Democrats to advance a resolution limiting future US military force in Venezuela without congressional approval. The final resolution is not guaranteed to pass, but today’s vote deals a symbolic rebuke to President Donald Trump.
• US oversight in Venezuela: Trump has declined to say specifically how long the US aims to control the country, but when asked by The New York Times yesterday if it would be months, a year or longer, he replied, “I would say much longer.” Sigue nuestra cobertura en español.
• Prisoner release: The Venezuelan government says it will release a “significant number” of political prisoners, both Venezuelan and foreign. Releasing prisoners has been a key US demand, a source previously told CNN.
• The latest from Caracas: Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said yesterday that Venezuela “is not at war” and welcomed new energy ties with the US. Caracas experienced another night of silence and empty streets amid uncertainty about what comes next.
Vice President JD Vance said he’s “not concerned at all” after several GOP senators on Thursday voted to advance a resolution that would limit executive war powers in Venezuela without congressional approval.
Senators were able to force a vote under the 1973 War Powers Act, after the US military operation in Venezuela and capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Five Republicans voted with Democrats for the measure, which will push the Senate on a future vote in an effort to limit the president’s powers in the deepening conflict with Venezuela.
Vance went on to claim that every “president, Democrat or Republican, believes the War Powers Act is fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law,” a sentiment he says President Donald Trump agrees with.
“It’s not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, and that will continue to be how we approach things go,” Vance added.
European leaders should be taking President Donald Trump seriously when it comes to his renewed interest in Greenland, Vice President JD Vance said today.
Asked by reporters at the White House what his message would be to European leaders who reject the idea that the Arctic territory ruled by Denmark is for sale, Vance said they should take Trump at his word.
“So what we’re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that landmass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said.
What that “something” may be, the vice president said he would leave that up to Trump. The White House said in a statement Tuesday that using the military to acquire Greenland is an option.
Vance said Trump has argued Greenland is important to both the US and world’s defense and that “hostile adversaries” have show interest in the territory.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland soon, Vance said, and he said the US will continue to “engage in diplomacy” with European leaders.
Vice President JD Vance on Thursday insisted he was involved in the planning for the US operation to depose Nicolas Maduro.
Vance went on to defend the operation and the way it was planned. “Look, we’re all part of the same team, and one of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we kept it very tight to the senior Cabinet-level officials and related officials in our government, and we kept this operation secret for a very long time. I’m very proud of that,” he added.
The vice president seemed to be responding to a New Yorker piece earlier this week, which noted Vance was not present in photos showing members of the president’s national security team at Mar-a-Lago during the Venezuela operation.
Reflecting on his role in the administration, Vance said he planned to do “whatever the president asks me to do.”
“Every other day, I’m chairing the meeting that we do among White House principals to talk about next steps to try to ensure that Venezuela is stable, and as the president has directed us to do, to ensure that the new Venezuelan government actually listens to the United States and does what the United States needs it to do under our country’s best interest,” he said.
“So, I’m going to be as involved as the president wants me to be — so far that’s been very involved, and I’ll keep on doing that, so long as the president asks me to do it.”
Top Senate Democrats are pushing the chamber to swiftly pass a resolution to block military action in Venezuela next week, after the measure advanced today.
The Senate voted 52-47 to consider the resolution on the Senate floor, with five Republican senators joining Democrats.
With the January 30 government funding deadline bearing down on Congress, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been clear that he wants to take next week to process appropriations bills in the Senate, rather than consider the war powers resolution.
However, Schumer said he is “absolutely” confident they can deal with both issues next week. “We will work with Sen. Kaine so we can do both,” he said.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a cosponsor of the war powers resolution, noted that there will be an open amendment process, which could take more time, but argued that in the past both sides have been able to agree on a smaller slate of amendments to consider.
“I don’t think my colleagues on the other side thought it was going to pass. So I’m not sure that they’ve really thought that that through,” he added.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday that five Spaniards had been freed in Venezuela’s announced prisoner release.
One of the five has dual citizenship, the ministry said in a statement, and all are preparing to fly to Spain with embassy assistance.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares later identified the five in an interview with Radio Nacional de España as Rocío San Miguel, Andrés Martínez, José María Basoa, Miguel Moreno and Ernesto Gorbe.
San Miguel, a security analyst and activist who was arrested in February 2024. The Venezuelan government had accused her, without evidence, of being part of a plot to kill President Nicolás Maduro. US officials had previously expressed concern over her case.
Albares had earlier said that the release would likely include Spaniards, telling Spanish Public Broadcaster La 2 that freeing Spanish prisoners would be “a very positive step by the new acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in this new stage that Venezuela is in.”
The head of representation for Greenland Jacob Isbosethsen told reporters today that there are no plans to sell the territory to the United States after he and the Danish ambassador to the US met with senators.
“Greenland is not for sale,” Isbosethsen said, speaking alongside Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, the Danish ambassador to the US, as well as GOP Sen. Roger Wicker and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
“I think the core of what we have discussed is that we have ample opportunities to strengthen our relationship within the existing structures, and we intend to work on that,” Ambassador Møller Sørensen said, reiterating the country’s stance on the matter amid President Donald Trump’s renewed interest in acquiring the arctic territory.
Wicker, the GOP chair of the Senate Armed Services committee, said it was Denmark’s “prerogative and right” to decline talks over the sale of the semiautonomous territory. He argued the US should focus on other “great opportunities” to enhance the country’s relationship with Denmark and Greenland.
He added later, “I think there are wonderful opportunities with the critical minerals, with the challenges we have in the Arctic, and I think going forward we can answer a lot of the desires of Americans for better security in that way.”
People in Greenland are worried about Donald Trump’s threats to take control of the semiautonomous territory.
The emboldened US president has turned his sights to Greenland in recent comments following his intervention in Venezuela, and top US officials are set to meet Danish ministers next week.
CNN’s Nic Robertson reports from the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk:
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Greenland faces pressure from President Trump
01:45
President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticized a small group of Republican senators who voted to advance a resolution that would limit future US military action in Venezuela without congressional approval, calling on voters to “NEVER” reelect them.
“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. He named Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley and Todd Young, adding they “should never be elected to office again.”
Trump argued the vote undermines national security and presidential authority.
He also denounced the War Powers Act, calling it “Unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution,” while noting that “a more important Senate Vote will be taking place next week on this very subject,.”
Trump’s comment comes after the group of Senate Republicans joined all Democrats to advance the resolution, delivering a notable rebuke to Trump just days after a US operation that ousted Venezuela’s leader. The procedural vote sets up a future Senate showdown over the president’s authority to deploy military force in the escalating situation involving Venezuela, a move that surprised even some Democrats who had been uncertain of how Republican votes would fall.
Spain’s foreign minister said Thursday that Venezuela’s announced prisoner release will likely include Spaniards.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares recently confirmed in an interview on the Spanish Public Broadcaster La 2 that “everything points” to the release including Spanish citizens.
“It will be a very positive step by the new acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in this new stage that Venezuela is in,” Albares said.
CNN has asked Spain’s foreign ministry for the number of Spanish prisoners it believes will be freed.
Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said Thursday that the government has decided to release “a significant number” of political prisoners, both Venezuelan and foreign, in order to “contribute to the effort” of “national unity.”
He indicated that this release was a “gesture by the government… with a broad intention to seek peace.”
Members of the Trump administration have told US lawmakers they have made clear to Venezuela that it must release political prisoners, among other demands, according to a source familiar with the US administration’s briefing with key lawmakers this week.
Days before the US captured Maduro, a US official told CNN that Venezuelan security forces had detained at least five Americans in recent months.
At the time, the official told CNN that the Trump administration believed that the Americans had been detained as leverage. The individual cases of each detainee varied, and some may have been involved in drug smuggling, the official added.
It is unclear whether any of the five referenced by the official will be among those released.
CNN’s Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes and Jennifer Hansler contributed.
A small bloc of Senate Republicans has delivered a notable rebuke of President Donald Trump just days after his operation ousting and seizing Venezuela’s leader, voting to advance a resolution that would limit future US military force in the nation without Congress’ approval.
Five Republicans on Thursday voted with all Senate Democrats to allow a future vote that would limit the president’s powers in the deepening conflict with Venezuela — a move that surprised even some Democrats who had not been certain how the GOP votes would fall.
The full measure is expected to pass next week, which would require 51 votes in the Senate. The measure, though, will still need to withstand a full amendment process and support for the final resolution is not guaranteed.
The vote in the Senate had been considered mostly a messaging exercise by Democrats and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a co-sponsor of the measure, to force their GOP counterparts to register their discontent over – or support of – an increasingly emboldened White House. But now that it has won over enough Republican votes, it becomes a much more real threat to the reach of Trump’s power.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her country does not seek confrontation with the United States, emphasizing that she has a good relationship with US President Donald Trump’s government.
The Mexican government has “a great relationship with US Northern Command, with US agencies, with the US embassy in Mexico itself, with people in the US who are involved in security cooperation,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference.
She added that while there is “cooperation and coordination” with the Trump administration, Mexican officials are clear about the principles of “defending our sovereignty and our territory.”
Trump has often accused Mexico of shirking its responsibility to control the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
On Sunday, Trump claimed that drugs were “pouring” through Mexico and that “we’re going to have to do something.”
CNN’s Tim Lister contributed reporting.
The Senate is voting now on a resolution to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers in Venezuela.
Sen. Adam Schiff told CNN a short time ago that Democrats needed just one more vote to pass the resolution.
“We just need one more. We just need four Republicans, and we can pass this in the Senate. And that will make a very powerful statement,” Schiff told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
The senator from California also emphasized the importance of Congress exercising this particular authority over the executive branch.
“Nevertheless, if we don’t exercise this power under these circumstances, then if we see further, further military intervention in Colombia or Mexico or Greenland or Iran or Nigeria or anywhere else, the Congress will have only itself to blame for letting this power given to us by the founders atrophy to the point of complete nonuse.”
Remember: The resolution is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. While the measure is unlikely to pass the House, or win enough support for a veto-proof majority, a successful vote in the Senate would amount to a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s handling of the conflict in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife last weekend.
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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Colombia’s foreign minister says Petro’s call with Trump is a ‘starting point’
00:37 • Source: CNN
Colombia’s foreign minister says Petro’s call with Trump is a ‘starting point’
00:37
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had a phone conversation with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodriguez this week and invited her to visit Bogota, according to a source with knowledge of the call.
There’s still no set date for the visit, but the source, who asked to speak anonymously because they were not allowed to discuss diplomatic conversations with the press, insisted it could take place in the next few weeks, either in the Colombian capital or another location closer to the Colombia-Venezuela border.
The official visit would be Rodriguez’s first trip as Venezuela’s acting head of state and a sign of confidence from one of her country’s top trading and diplomatic partners.
Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio said yesterday’s call between President Gustavo Petro and US President Donald Trump “was a very respectful dialogue,” and emphasized that it is a starting point for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The phone call took place after Trump threatened possible actions against Colombia, following the US capture of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The foreign minister said at a news conference today that this is a “very complex moment” that “we have not experienced in decades,” but stressed the goal of reestablishing a constructive and equal dialogue with Washington.
Yesterday, Trump said, “It was a great honor to speak” with Petro and said, “I appreciate his call and tone,” according to posts on social media.
The foriegn minister confirmed that Bogotá invited Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, for a visit. “She has not yet responded, but the invitation has been made. Just as President Trump was invited a few weeks ago,” she said.
Villavicencio stated that the foreign ministry will seek to develop a working agenda with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Read more about the diplomatic relations between the US and Colombia and follow our live coverage in Spanish here.
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Life on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela
01:19 • Source: CNN
Life on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela
01:19
Although in daylight Venezuelans seem to be regaining some normalcy in their routines, nighttime remains an empty scene, especially on the streets of Caracas, where tension and uncertainty are palpable as the sun begins to set.
The main roads have little vehicle traffic compared to what nights were like before Saturday, when the United States attacked the capital and captured Nicolás Maduro in a surprise military operation.
Only a few businesses remain open after sunset and there are hardly any pedestrians. People stay sheltered in their homes, while the presence of armed security personnel increases.
Silence prevails at least until dawn, when Caracas residents resume their daily functions and the Venezuelan capital returns to a circulation more similar to usual.
Read more about what’s happening on the ground in Venezuela and follow our live coverage in Spanish here.
For many Greenlanders, the Trump administration’s repeated comments stating desire to take over the territory represent a “total show of disrespect,” according to Greenlandic filmmaker Inuk Silis Høegh.
Over the last few days, Trump has reiterated his designs on Greenland in the wake of his administration’s stunning move to remove Venezuela’s leader from power.
“People are a bit worried, but immediately on social media … there were a lot of people posting our flag and standing firm,” Høegh told CNN of the Greenlandic reaction to Trump’s remarks.
When the Trump administration turned its attention to Greenland — the vast autonomous Arctic territory ruled by Denmark — last year, it prompted “one of the biggest demonstrations” against the US approach, Høegh said.
Similarly, Christian Keldsen, CEO of the Greenland Business Association, said the issue is “in the background for us” but it “is irritating people because it’s unnecessary.”
Both Høegh and Keldsen underlined the close economic and strategic relationship which already exists between Greenland and the US, allowing American investment and military bases on the territory.
The issue strikes right at the heart of Greenland’s politics, which have long been shaped by Denmark’s colonial legacy and questions about the territory’s future independence.
The largest oil reserves of any country on the planet, more than 300 billion barrels, are estimated to lie beneath the ground in Venezuela.
See how the country’s oil infrastructure is mapped out below:
CNN’s Manu Raju reports on the response from some House Republicans to a statement from the White House Tuesday that using the military to acquire Greenland is an option.
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House Republicans grapple with Trump’s Greenland threat
House Republicans react to a statement from the White House that said using the military to acquire Greenland is an option. CNN’s Manu Raju reports.
Stellar Slug: house-republicans-grapple-with-trumps-greenland-threat-digvid-vrtc
01:45 • Source: CNN
House Republicans grapple with Trump’s Greenland threat
01:45
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What Venezuela’s political leadership could look like
03:01 • Source: CNN
What Venezuela’s political leadership could look like
03:01
As tension continues in Venezuela and uncertainty about the country’s future grows, opposition leader María Corina Machado said that she considers the government of Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president, to be “absolutely temporary.”
In an interview with the Venezuelan outlet La Patilla, Machado insisted the “transition is irreversible” in Venezuela.
Machado left Venezuela in December after nearly a year in hiding and traveled to Oslo, where she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She maintained that Rodríguez’s government is “a phase before the transition advances” and again stressed the need for the release of political prisoners as an essential step to achieving change in the country.
After the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a US military operation in Caracas last Saturday, US President Donald Trump was asked about Machado’s possible role in the transition. Trump expressed doubts about whether she can govern the country, saying that “she does not have the support or respect of the people.”
Machado is no longer in Oslo, but there is no public information about her current whereabouts.
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