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VT JRH008

Joint Resolution

Status

Introduced

2/4/2026

Primary Sponsor

Esme Cole

Click for details

Origin

House of Representatives

2025-2026 Session

AI Summary

  • Condemns the January 3, 2026 U.S. military incursion in Venezuela, in which U.S. forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their compound in Caracas without prior congressional approval and transported them to U.S. custody.

  • Implores the release of Maduro and Flores from U.S. custody and the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military forces recently deployed in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

  • Notes that approximately 80 persons perished as a result of simultaneous cover attacks related to the incursion, and raises concerns that oil control—not drug interdiction—may be the true motivation for the military action.

  • Acknowledges that the resolution is not intended to legitimize Maduro's leadership, as broad international consensus holds he lost the 2024 Venezuelan election, but asserts that this does not justify U.S. military intervention to seize a foreign leader.

  • Directs the Vermont Secretary of State to send copies of the resolution to President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the Vermont Congressional Delegation.

Legislative Description

Joint resolution condemning the January 3, 2026, U.S. military incursion in Venezuela and imploring that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, be released from U.S. custody; that all U.S. military forces recently deployed in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean be withdrawn immediately; that Venezuelans be allowed to exercise their right to political self-determination on their own accord; and that the United States abandon any intentions or plans to repeat a similar intervention to disrupt or destroy the right to self-determination and political sovereignty of any other nation

Last Action

Read first time, treated as a bill, and referred to the Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs

2/4/2026

Committee Referrals

Government Operations and Military Affairs2/4/2026

Full Bill Text

No bill text available