State Department warns US citizens to leave Venezuela

The U.S. military action in Venezuela is a good thing for "peace" in the Caribbean region, Vice President JD Vance claimed Thursday, saying a major source of illegal cartel revenue is now eliminated.

When asked at a press briefing on Thursday whether he’d be able to guarantee that the Caribbean region would remain a "a zone of peace," Vance first referenced President Donald Trump’s phone call on Wednesday with Colombian President Gustavo Petro and then suggested that Nicolas Maduro's capture has impacted the illegal drug trade.

“This is the president of peace. One of the ways that you establish peace in your own hemisphere is to make it clear that the United States is willing to take power away from criminal cartel organizations and give it to legitimate governments. That's how we see the future of the Western Hemisphere. We think it's going to be much more peaceful than it was,” Vance said.

Later, Vance was asked about his specific role in the future of Venezuela, saying he’s been tasked to do “whatever the president asks me to do,” but claiming he’s been thus far “very involved.”

"I want to be as involved as the president wants me to be. So far that's been very involved,” he said.

Vance also rebuked any assertion that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had been cut out of planning for the Venezuela operations based on her past military involvement.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray

After the Senate voted to move forward on a Venezuela war powers resolution, a group of House Democrats led by Rep. Jim McGovern introduced their own resolution that would ban U.S. military action in Venezuela without Congressional approval.

The legislation mirrors the resolution that the House voted on in December that failed narrowly by a vote of 211-213, with three Republicans voting in favor.

Democrats are hopeful now, however, that they can get Republican support to pass the resolution following the U.S. operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.

"So, we applaud the Democrats and the Republicans that supported Senator Kaine's resolution. We call on the Speaker of the House to bring that up immediately, and we ought to have that debate, and we ought to have that vote. If he doesn't, we have introduced a war powers resolution, which will be ripen in 15 days, so we will be able to vote on it," McGovern, of Massachusetts, said at a news conference Thursday.

A vote in the House on this measure is expected to occur by the end of January.

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller

Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Kevin Lunday said that elite crews "flawlessly" conducted the seizures of two Venezuela-linked oil tankers this week, calling the Coast Guard the “only agency in the federal government that can do these kinds of operations."

Lunday lauded the interagency teamwork that accomplished the seizure operations under the "clear direction" of President Donald Trump "to stop the flow of this illicit oil out of Venezuela that’s fueling international terrorism, that’s fueling drug trafficking and human trafficking, and to work together to do it."

"That’s what you saw yesterday," Lunday told ABC News’ Kyra Phillips in an interview on ABC News Live.

When asked about Russia’s deployment of submarines to the Caribbean and if the Coast Guard encountered any of its assets, Lunday said, "We did see two Russian military aircraft overfly the Coast Guard cutter in the North Atlantic that was escorting the Bella 1. That was a couple of days ago. But at no time ... was the Coast guard concerned at all about Russian military presence, interfering with our legal authority and our operation that was ongoing."

Notably, Lunday did not confirm or deny the presence of Russian submarines.

-ABC News' Kyra Phillips, Joshua Ascher, Thomas Santomarco, Diana Paulsen, Luke Barr and Olivia Osteen

Following the Senate vote to advance a Venezuela war powers resolution, President Donald Trump is publicly calling out the Republican Senators who voted for the resolution, saying they “should be ashamed” and “never be elected to office again."

“This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” Trump said in a post on social media.