Maxwell Frost wants Congress briefed immediately on U.S. action in Venezuela — and whatever may come next

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost says the potential for chaos in Venezuela means President Donald Trump’s administration must fully brief Congress on Nicolás Maduro’s arrest.

The Orlando Democrat said that with no leadership in a major South American nation, informing Congress of future actions can’t wait. Indeed, he said it should have happened before military forces entered Venezuela and deposed Maduro.

“No. 1, as per the law, at least the Armed Services committee should be informed about these things before they happen,” he said. “The President says, ‘Well, Congress leaks.’ Well, the law doesn’t say it’s up to discretion like that.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a press conference cited concerns about the timeliness of the military operation in bypassing notification.

“We called members of Congress immediately after,” Rubio said. “This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days. So it’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.’”

But Frost said the announced plans to only brief most of Congress over the next week ignores the continuing threat of chaos on the horizon. He pointed to developments over a matter of hours on Saturday.

The U.S. arrested Maduro overnight. In a morning press conference, Trump said the administration had conversations with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s Vice President. Trump said Rodríguez told Rubio she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary.” But within hours, Rodríguez told state media the government would demand Maduro’s immediate release and promised that her nation would not “surrender” to the U.S.

Frost also pointed to statements from Trump that the U.S. was prepared for a “second wave if we needed to do so,” indicating potential for further military action.

“I don’t know what is going to happen,” Frost said. “We don’t know what else the President has planned.”

Frost suggested that political concerns for the President, such as his poor approval ratings and the ongoing release of files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, prompted the military action more than any concern for the well-being of Venezuelans. Frost noted that the same administration revoked temporary protected status for Venezuelans in the U.S. while also taking military action to remove the regime.

But Frost, like other Florida Democrats, stressed that he holds no sympathy for Maduro. Nearly half of all Venezuelans living in the U.S. live in Florida, a number that rose sharply in 2010, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

“Nicolás Maduro is a brutal dictator, who spent a decade killing, disappearing and jailing his people. On a personal note, my Mom is a refugee from Cuba who was escaping political oppression,” Frost said.

“But a lot of things can be true at once. There are a lot of people in the Venezuelan diaspora celebrating today, and the reason there is a diaspora is that there is a brutal dictatorship in Venezuela.”

He felt distressed when Trump said five times in his press conference Saturday that the U.S. will now run the nation, rather than laying out any plan for selecting new leadership in Venezuela.

Most international observers believe opposition leader Edmundo González rightfully won a 2024 election against Maduro, including Frost. Frost stopped shy of endorsing elevating Gonzalez to power, a course promoted by others like U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, but he didn’t dismiss the approach.

“I will say, of course, I think he (González) won that election and Maduro stole the election, so that makes some sense. But I also think there is something to be said about a new election being done. But I’m wary of the United States making decisions on behalf of Venezuelans,” Frost said.

“If history tells us anything about our country getting involved in Latin America, it’s not a pretty picture.”