Trump faces setback as Senate votes against US military action in Venezuela

The United States President, Donald Trump, faced a major setback as the US Senate advanced a resolution on Thursday that would bar him from taking further military action against Venezuela without congressional authorisation, dailypost.ng reported.

The vote on a procedural measure to advance the war powers resolution was 52 to 47, as a handful of Trump’s fellow Republicans voted with every Democrat in favour of moving ahead, according to Reuters.

The vote came days after the US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a fierce military raid in Caracas.

Recall that two previous attempts to advance similar resolutions were blocked in the Senate last year by Trump’s fellow Republicans, as the administration ramped up military pressure on Venezuela with attacks on boats in the southern Caribbean starting in September.

Maduro is currently facing drug-related offenses in the US, which he denied.

Earlier Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim government had ceded 30-50 million barrels of crude oil to the US.