By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republicans blocked a resolution on Thursday that would have prevented President Donald Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional authorization, a day after administration officials told lawmakers that Washington is not currently planning strikes on Venezuelan territory.
The Senate voted 51 to 49, largely along party lines, against a measure that would have brought the war powers resolution up for a vote.
Only two of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure, the latest test of the party’s willingness to support Trump’s military buildup in the southern Caribbean, after two months of deadly strikes against boats off Venezuela.
The Trump administration says that since early September, U.S. forces have launched at least 16 strikes against such vessels in the Pacific and southern Caribbean, killing more than 65 people.
The weeks of strikes have heightened concern that Trump will launch an attack on Venezuela itself, which prompted the introduction of the bipartisan resolution, whose lead sponsors were Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Steve Holland; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler)
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