Richard F. Kosich: By opposing Operation Absolute Resolve, the Inquirer Editorial Board shows a predictable lack of resolve

Operation Absolute Resolve, the textbook military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, by all accounts was a sweeping success, yielding the arrests of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, without the loss of any U.S. military personnel or equipment. It began in the early hours of January 3, and took less than three hours, from start to finish. 

By 12:35pm, January 3, the Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board, had already published its opposition to the operation, claiming that “President Trump mounted an illegal invasion of Venezuela,” and also accused the President of essentially “kidnapping” Maduro and his wife. 

The Board further expounded on its outlandish claims by arguing that kidnapping president Nicolás Maduro has “no legal justification,” was in “clear violation of the Constitution,” and was “without any provocation or convincing explanation.”

A closer examination below of each of these claims, however, reveals them to be without merit, and merely more political pablum from the local anti-Trump “resistance” media.

The Editorial Board begins its missive by falsely claiming that “the breathtaking use of military force against a sovereign state has no legal justification.” Apparently, they haven’t been keeping up on current events. 

If they had, they would know that former “president” Maduro was indicated for drug smuggling and other charges by the Southern U.S. District Court of New York back in 2020. The indictment also states that Mr. Maduro and his allies worked for decades with major drug trafficking groups, like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Sinaloa Cartel to distribute millions of pounds of cocaine into the U.S. 

Even the New York Times had to begrudgingly acknowledge that “There is evidence that Mr. Maduro has benefited from the drug trade to stay in power. Both the indictment and experts say he also used profits from drug trafficking to secure the loyalty of military officials and leaders in his party.”

Looks like the former bus driver from Caracas traded in his bus for a drug speed boat after figuring out where the fast money was.

Unfortunately (for him), it also meant punching a one-way, first-class ticket to New York City on the USS Iwo Jima, after a brief ride on a U.S. Army Special Operations MH-60 “DAP” Helicopter. But no worries, as I’m sure the food was organic and culturally appropriate for the (former) big guy, making his journey a memorable one.

Defense attorney Barry Pollack, who has filed to appear on Maduro’s behalf, also described Maduro’s arrest as “an abduction” in court, echoing the Inquirer’s “kidnapping” charge. He is expected to file extensive motions as the case plays out.

“Pollack will argue sovereign immunity for Maduro,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who put hundreds of drug traffickers behind bars early in his career. “He briefly mentioned it in court.”

The situation has also drawn comparisons to Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, who raised a similar defense after he was captured by the U.S. in 1990. The U.S., however, does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, particularly after a disputed 2024 reelection.

“The argument will fail like it did in the Noriega case because the State Department does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state,” Rahmani said. “That’s why the indictment says Maduro is the illegitimate ruler of Venezuela.”

The Inky’s Editorial Board believes that Trump’s actions in Venezuela weren’t just illegal, but unconstitutional as well. They claim that “Trump acted without the authorization of Congress, in clear violation of the Constitution.” And although they are correct about President Trump not receiving Congressional authorization before launching Operation Absolute Resolve, it’s not the own they think it is. 

For example, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. So, if Absolute Resolve had been the precursor to a much larger and prolonged military action, then their baseless claim might have some merit. 

Top GOP lawmakers, however, have argued Congressional approval wasn’t required for this type of operation, as it was a surgical extraction of an indicted tyrant holding his country hostage, rather than a military operation. 

“This was a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, while noting that although the plan was to force policy change in Venezuela, the U.S. was not at war with the country. 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had a similar take, noting that “We are not at war. We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country.”

The foreign affairs “experts” on the Inquirer’s Editorial Board are apparently also unaware that President Trump’s decision to authorize strikes on Venezuela follows decades of presidents sidestepping Congress to launch offensives abroad. 

Clark Neily, a senior vice president at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, told Fox News Digital that Trump’s decision to carry out Maduro’s arrest tested constitutional limits but was likely legal.”Congress has the sole power to declare war, but presidents have long used military force without formal congressional approval,” he said.

Under The War Powers Resolution of 1973, in particular, Presidents are also given broad discretion, in conjunction with their Article II, Section 2 powers as Commander in Chief, allowing them to unilaterally deploy troops abroad for short durations or in response to immediate threats.

The War Powers Resolution only requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing U.S. armed forces to hostilities, and limits deployment without congressional authorization to between 60-90 days. 

The Trump administration notified select members of Congress about the raid during their first closed-door briefing held on January 5, two full days following the operation which began in the early hours of Saturday, January 3. This post-operation notification therefore fulfilled the requirements of the War Powers Resolution, also known as the “48-hour reports.”

The Editorial Board also claims that Maduro’s capture was done “without any provocation or convincing explanation,” offering up one last bogus critique of the President’s actions in Venezuela. 

They are apparently unaware that China has long viewed Venezuela as a key political ally in Latin America while expanding its influence in the region. Beijing has been the Maduro regime’s primary financial lifeline through loans and oil purchases, accounting for around 80 percent of the country’s total oil exports.

Understandably, China strongly condemned the U.S. strike on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, calling the action “deeply shocking” and a serious violation of international law. 

The Editorial Board then is keeping in good company with their fellow communist cohorts, like China, Russia, Cuba and the Democratic Socialists of America, all of whom have openly opposed Maduro’s capture. 

The Trump administration, however, described the operation as part of a broader effort to reassert “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” or what it called a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine — the “Donroe Doctrine”— pledging to deny non-hemispheric competitors such as China, Russia and Iran control over strategically vital assets in the Americas. 

From that perspective, the Trump administration can hardly be faulted for not wanting to let those countries get a foothold in essentially our own back yard.

Decisions made by corrupt, foreign leaders like Nicolás Maduro have direct consequences for U.S. cities like Philadelphia, which has been identified by federal authorities as a real-world endpoint for major cocaine shipments tied to international trafficking routes run by international drug cartels.

In 2019, for example, nearly 20 tons of cocaine, with a street value of about $1.3 billion, was seized at the Port of Philadelphia when the drugs were found aboard the container ship MSC Gayane, which had traveled through multiple foreign ports before docking in Philadelphia.

“The seizure of the MSC Gayane is another significant step toward holding accountable those who perpetuate drug smuggling crimes both here in Philadelphia and around the world,” said Marlon Miller, Special Agent in Charge of HSI Philadelphia.

For Philadelphia residents then, this is not an abstract foreign policy issue, as cocaine trafficked through international networks, like the Venezuelan trafficking network known as Cartel de los Soles, eventually shows up on local streets here. This contributes to organized crime activity and intersects with the city’s ongoing struggles with gun violence and drug addiction. 

That context matters now, as taking out Maduro can only be considered a win in the ongoing war on drugs. It’s a pity then that the Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board can’t be on the winning team, but has chosen the drug cartels over team U.S.A. instead. 

Richard F. Kosich is a freelance writer and community organizer/activist in Conshohocken, Vice-Chair of the Colonial Republicans, and Chair of the Conshohocken Borough Republican Committee (CBRC). Opinions are his own.