The US Senate has voted for legislation that would bar Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without authorisation from Congress.
The war powers resolution was carried with 52 to 47 votes, as five Republicans joined the Democrats to back it. Another Republican declined to vote.
Their decision ensures a vote on the final passage of the legislation next week. But it has virtually no chance of becoming law because it would also need to be passed by the Republican majority House of Representatives.
It would also need to get two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate to survive an expected veto from Mr Trump.
The president has criticised the Republican senators who voted to support the motion on Thursday.
“Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” Mr Trump said in a social media post.
He added 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”.
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The vote came after US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a military operation in Caracas on Saturday.
Following Maduro’s capture, the Trump administration came under criticism from Democrats for misleading Congress on plans for regime change in Venezuela.
Thursday’s vote was a significant victory for lawmakers who have argued that Congress rather than the president should have the power to declare war, as set out in the US constitution.
Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, who co-sponsored the resolution, said the resolution had gained increasing support among Republicans
“It’s interesting to see that more people, at least on my side, now are interested in who has the war prerogative, who was the prerogative to initiate or declare war,” he said after Thursday’s vote.
But Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the foreign relations panel, said in a Senate speech before the vote that it would achieve little.
“The purpose of this resolution is to slap the president in the face,” he said.
“It will do nothing that it purports to do because it can’t stop something that isn’t going on right now.”
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Meanwhile on Thursday, Venezuela’s top lawmaker, Jorge Rodriguez, said significant number of prisoners would be released during the day as a gesture of peace.
The move follows repeated requests from Venezuelan opposition figures to release political prisoners held under the Maduro regime.
Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal estimated there were 863 political prisoners in the country, including political figures,
human rights activists, protesters and journalists.
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Republicans blocked two previous attempts to push similar resolutions in the Senate last year, as the Trump administration ramped up military pressure on Venezuela.
The vote blocking the last resolution in November was passed with only 51 to 49 votes.
This came soon after Trump advisers told lawmakers they did not plan to change the government or conduct strikes on Venezuelan territory.
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Trump’s rhetoric and recent events in Venezuela have also raised concerns that he might take military action to capture Greenland.
Maduro will stand trial on drugs and weapons charges in New York, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
