How can Idaho’s Risch support illegal invasion of Venezuela? | Opinion

A letter to Senator Risch

As you are chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, I would like to know your stance on our illegal invasion of Venezuela. Nobody is disputing that Maduro was a corrupt dictator. If the goal was regime change and promotion of democracy, that doesn’t seem to be the case, since the Maduro regime is still in place.

There was no Congressional briefing. Yes, he was indicted, but does that mean that you can indict and seize leaders that we don’t like and then use our military to remove them and then claim we’re going to “run” the country without any plan?

This isn’t about narco-terrorism. It’s about oil. Right now, from all accounts we have an oil glut. It remains to be seen that the oil companies want such a risky investment.

On a tactical front, it highlighted the best of our armed services, but we are now in another quagmire without a plan. Remember Iraq, Afghanistan?

So far, it looks like another emboldened military adventure by an administration who wants to project strength with no afterthought. Actions have consequences, and this will not fare well.

Linda Beebe, Boise

Poverty

I write as a Catholic who believes the Incarnation did not end in Bethlehem, and therefore what this nation does to the poor, it does to Christ (Matthew 25). The US has adopted policies that shorten the lives of poor and marginalized people—especially those harmed by race, ethnicity, religion, or poverty — and then calls those deaths “unfortunate,” “necessary,” or “inevitable.” This is structural. Preventable death is accepted as a way of governing. For decades, both parties defunded child care, healthcare, housing, education, veteran care, and infrastructure while funding prisons, policing, weapons, and war. Welfare “reform” punished poverty. Mass incarceration devastated communities. Health care handed to the market. Deindustrialization destroyed towns. These were not mistakes — they were decisions. Poverty has been criminalized, teaching the poor that government is something to fear. American Christianity, especially Christian nationalism, has often blessed this cruelty by dividing people into “deserving” and “undeserving.” This moral abandonment helped create the conditions for Trump’s rise. He is not the cause of our sickness; he is the symptom of a nation that accepted death for the poor long ago. As a Catholic, I must say: policies that let the poor die are not political failures — they are crucifixions.

Arthur Galus, Boise

Marijuana

Removing cannabis from its longstanding Schedule I classification and acknowledging its legitimate therapeutic utility is long overdue (“Trump’s right on this one; Senators should back rescheduling cannabis,” December 31)

Tens of thousands of physicians currently authorize medical cannabis products to their patients, as acknowledged by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and marijuana clearly does not possess the same risks to health as other Schedule I substances like heroin, or even unscheduled drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. Scientists over the past decade have published over 37,000 papers evaluating cannabis and its effects, according to the results of a keyword search of the National Library of Medicine/PubMed.gov website, making it among the most well-researched psychoactive agents available.

Nations around the world, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, and the United Kingdom, acknowledge cannabis as a legitimate medicine. It’s high time the United States follows suit. To argue otherwise is out of step with both public opinion and scientific consensus.

Paul Armentano, deputy director, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Washington, D.C.

Venezuela

Trump used our military to illegally abduct Maduro, a wealthy, drug dealing criminal as a hostage for ransom. Trump gets prestige from exercising his power and increases his family’s wealth potential. He said, “We’ll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses…”

He claims he’ll make Venezuela a democracy but immediately dismissed the notion that democratic Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado could lead the country. He wants to run it himself until he can make more money on it.

Maduro is facing narco-terrorism, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons charges. It’s the same charges as former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández faced in 2024. Biden used the legal process to charge, extradite, arrest and sentence Hernandez for 45 years, convicted of dealing 400 tons of cocaine. Biden did not risk our brave military or violate international laws. In 2024, Trump pardoned Hernandez, claiming he was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”

Using the power of the president, Trump’s latest corrupt money-making scheme doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Hernández will reward Trump, and by 2028, the Maduro family will pay ransom for a pardon, too.

Ed Wardwell, Boise

Maduro

My first reaction to the capture of Maduro was a flash of pride that our forces could do this, amid some anxiety whether we should do it. Then I listened to the president’s news conference. All became clear. This was not about helping a struggling neighbor. It was not about restoring or creating a democracy. It was not about drug trafficking. It was not about the people of Venezuela. It was about oil.

He dismissed the opposition leader as weak, lying about her support in her own country, ignoring her Nobel Peace Prize. He said we would run the country for an undefined amount of time. (At this time, it is not even clear if we can. The situation on the ground is murky.) He threw out a few crumbs about safety and order, about Maduro as an indicted criminal. He spent a lot of time talking about oil.

How is trying to take over Venezuela different from Putin invading Ukraine? How can a president essentially declare war without the consent of Congress? Is this consistent with the values of an American democratic republic?

Cheryl D Halverson, Tensed