The People’s Organization For Progress announced today its opposition to attempts by the Trump administration to provoke a war with Venezuela.

“It is clear to us from both his actions and his rhetoric that President Trump is trying to start a war with Venezuela,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization for Progress stated.

“The People’s Organization For Progress is absolutely opposed to war with Venezuela and calls upon the president to cease and desist all activities that would lead us into war with that country,” Hamm said.

“Furthermore, we call upon the members of Congress, who according to the constitution have the sole power to declare war, to take whatever steps are necessary, including passing legislation, to prevent the President from taking us to war with Venezuela,” he said.

“It is our hope that members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation will play a leading role in this effort to stop the president’s drive toward war,” he said.

“No justifiable reason has been has been given thus far to merit the United States going to war with that country. The government of Venezuela has not attacked nor declared war on the United States,” he said.

“In fact, it is the U.S. that is bullying Venezuela. It is our country that has placed extensive sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, financial, and government sectors that are hurting the economy and people there,” he said.

“It is the U.S. military under the direction of President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that has closed off Venezuelan airspace, bombed boats in the Caribbean carrying Venezuelan civilians, seized a Venezuelan tanker with two million barrels of oil, and announced the possibility of a land invasion,” he said.

“This is wrong. It is imperialist aggression plain and simple,” Hamm, a former U.S. Senate candidate, stated.

He said the boats were not military vessels and that least 14 Venezuelan nationals were killed in these strikes out of a total of 87 deaths. In one of the attacks an order was given to kill survivors of the initial attack who were in the water clinging to debris.

He went on to say the bombing of the boats and killing of civilians are violations of domestic and international law, and possibly a violation of the laws of war.

Trump and Hegseth have claimed the U.S. is at war with Venezuela to stop the flow of illegal drugs into this country. However, Congress has not declared war against Venezuela.

Drug interdiction is not a mission of the U.S. military. That is the work of U.S. law enforcement and the Coast Guard. In addition, no evidence has been produced to prove that the boats bombed by the military were carrying drugs.

“The attacks on these boats were criminal. People were killed. Those responsible for their deaths, including Trump and Hegseth, must be held accountable,” Hamm said.

“Trump’s efforts to provoke war with Venezuela must be stopped. Polls show that the majority of Americans do not want a U.S. war with Venezuela. They don’t want U.S. soldiers dying in Venezuela for oil or regime change,” he said.

“First, Hegseth must go. This fiasco should cost him his job. Members of Congress should continue to demand his resignation. If he doesn’t go willingly then he should be impeached. The Constitution provides for the impeachment of cabinet members,” he said.

Hamm said that Trump should also be impeached and if possible prosecuted for his role in this. Articles of impeachment have been introduced. However, that probably won’t happen after the midterms elections, he said.

For more information contact the People’s Organization For Progress at (973)801-0001.