[Peace] Chicago Area Peace Action letter to Durbin, Duckworth on Venezuela War Powers

[Robert Naiman]

To sign your org onto this letter, use this link
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfwZq7HW5vJIRXmlWMHb-8O_BuwzYSVU4GaC2C-AxaKNJRH_Q/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1p>
.

Please pass this along to other peace-oriented groups in central and
southern Illinois.

====

Request to Sign: SJRes11 VZ Coalition Letter to sign (closes May 27th)
Hello,

Chicago Area Peace Action is seeking organizational co-signers on this
letter to Senators urging they support SJRes11 - Prohibiting Unauthorized
Military Action in Venezuela Resolution of 2019.

Support for this legislation could not be more critical for Venezuela and
the US constitution. Secretary Pompeo explicitly endorsed U.S. military
action this week, stating: “Military action is possible. If that’s what’s
required, that’s what the United States will do” in Venezuela.

Thanks for your consideration of this urgent matter. Make sure to fill in
the form below before May 27th if you want your org to sign. Feel free to
email me if you have questions or comments.

Thank you,

Grace Siegelman
Chicago Area Peace Action Summer Fellow
siegelmang at gmail.com

* Required
Dear Senator Durbin and Duckworth:

We write to request your support for S.J.Res.11 – the Prohibiting
Unauthorized Military
Action in Venezuela Resolution of 2019 – introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley
of
Oregon. We also respectfully ask that any floor consideration of
legislation addressing
the crisis in Venezuela include S.J.Res.11, a critical safeguard against
unconstitutional
U.S. military action.

Senate adoption of S.JRes.11 could not come at a more urgent time. U.S.
officials in
charge of policy toward Venezuela, such as Elliott Abrams, have pursued a
strategy of
provocation and confrontation. In violation of the Charter of the
Organization of the
American States, and the Charter of the United Nations, and therefore
treaty obligations
of the United States, President Trump has publicly declared that all
options, including
U.S. military force, are on the table. Former acting FBI Director Andrew
McCabe
recounted that in 2017 President Trump privately argued that Venezuela is
the “country
we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they’re right on
our back
door.”

National Security Advisor John Bolton has publicly stated that “in this
administration,
we’re not afraid to use the word Monroe Doctrine,” has clutched documents
referring to
a proposal to deploy “5,000 troops to Colombia,” and has argued that “it
will make a big
difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil
companies
really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.” Meanwhile,
Secretary
Pompeo explicitly endorsed U.S. military action recently stating: “Military
action is possible.
If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do” in
Venezuela.

We applaud you for voting to reassert Congress’s sole authority over war
and peace
under Article I of the Constitution and working to bring an end to the
unauthorized U.S.-
Saudi military campaign in Yemen with the historic passage of the Yemen War
Powers
Resolution. Senator Merkley’s bill S.J.Res.11, also invokes the War Powers
Resolution
of 1973.

We call on you to again ensure that Congressional war powers be exercised
in the case
of Venezuela through Senate adoption of S.J.Res.11. Administration
officials and
members of Congress who seek to involve the United States military in a
regime
change effort in Venezuela have a constitutional obligation to present
their case to both
chambers of Congress and have the people’s duly elected representatives
carefully
debate and vote on whether to authorize any such proposal.

Sincerely,

Chicago Area Peace Action
===

Robert Reuel Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20190516/275fa6b1/attachment-0001.html>