63 pct of U.S. voters oppose U.S. military action inside Venezuela: poll

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- As many as 63 percent of U.S. voters said they oppose U.S. military action inside Venezuela, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

Only 25 percent of the interviewed said they support such military operations, a Quinnipiac University poll found.

Up to 89 percent of Democrats said they are against U.S. military action on the oil-rich South American nation, followed by 68 percent of independents and 33 percent of Republicans.

The poll found 52 percent of Republicans, 19 percent of independents and 4 percent of Democrats approve of military action inside Venezuela.

More than half of the poll responders, 53 percent, also said they oppose the Pentagon's strikes on alleged drug boats which have killed at least 95 people aboard in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September.

For almost four months, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Caribbean, much of it off Venezuela's coast, purportedly to combat drug trafficking -- a claim Venezuela has denounced as a thinly veiled attempt to bring about regime change in Caracas.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, stepping up a months-long pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Amid continuous boat strikes, Trump also repeatedly said in recent weeks that the U.S. military would begin land strikes targeting drug traffickers in the Caribbean "very soon."

Critics, including bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. Capitol, have questioned whether counternarcotics is indeed the only U.S. motive and the legality of the U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean for months.

The Quinnipiac poll asked 1,035 self-identified registered voters across the United States from Dec. 11 to 15, with a margin of error of around 3.9 percentage points.