US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Presented First Ideas on How the US Will Proceed in Venezuela Now, a Day After Nicolas Maduro and his Wife Were Arrested in a US Operation There, and They Were Taken Out of the Country and Taken to New York, Where They Will Face Trial in a US Court on Narco-Terrorism Charges. Rubio gave an extensive interview to CBS on the program of journalist Margaret Brennan, BTA reports.
Asked how Washington plans to govern the Latin American country, after President Donald Trump said yesterday that the United States will govern Venezuela and that it will be largely governed by the Secretary of State and other members of the Cabinet, Marco Rubio said: “First, I think it is important to emphasize that the key that this regime relies on is the economy fueled by oil. And right now it is an oil industry that is backward and really needs a lot of help and work. And it is not helping the people. Not a single dollar of oil reaches the people. Everything is stolen by the people at the top. That is why we have an embargo.... This remains in force and represents a huge lever of influence that will continue to operate until we see changes, and not only those that protect the national interest of the United States, which is the number one priority, but also those that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. This is the control that the president is talking about. We are continuing with this embargo and we expect to see changes not only in the way the oil sector is managed for the benefit of the people, but also to stop drug trafficking, to eliminate the gang problems, to expel Colombian groups and to end the proximity to “Hezbollah“ and Iran in our hemisphere“.
Rubio added that the US deployment in the region represents one of the largest naval deployments in modern history, certainly in the Western Hemisphere. According to Rubio, this deployment is capable of stopping not only drug trafficking, but also all sanctioned ships and effectively paralyzing the part of the system through which the Venezuelan regime generates revenue. “This will remain in force. The president does not intend to publicly rule out options, even if we do not use them at the moment. "And right now what you see is an oil embargo, which gives us a huge influence on what happens next," the Secretary of State said.
Agence France-Presse interpreted Rubio's statement as a softening of statements made yesterday by Trump himself, who said that the United States would govern Venezuela and would not hesitate to deploy troops on the ground if necessary.
Rubio was asked by journalist Brennan why Washington had decided to leave the Venezuelan regime still in place, almost intact, and to arrest only Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Brennan recalled that Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello is also accused by the United States of being a narco-terrorist and has a $25 million reward for his capture, but he still remains in his post. The same applies to Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrinho, who has deep ties to Russia, for whose capture there is a reward of $ 15 million. However, Rubio explained that things are very simple. "You can't go in and arrest five people at once. People are already complaining about this operation. Imagine the reaction if we had to stay there for four days to capture four more," he said, emphasizing that the priority was met. "We caught the man who claimed to be the president, without being one. He was arrested along with his wife, who was also accused. It was an extremely complex and risky operation," the Secretary of State added. "It's not easy to land helicopters at the largest military base in the country, in three minutes to break down the door, arrest him, read him his rights, take him out and leave the country without a single loss," Rubio added, emphasizing that the US military had a huge role in the success of this "daring mission."
In reference to Maduro, Rubio said that he was a man accused of being a drug trafficker, "who was not the legitimate president of Venezuela, whom we did not recognize, whom the Biden administration did not recognize, over 60 countries, the EU and many countries in Latin America do not recognize."
In the interview, Rubio also spoke about Venezuelan opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia. Machado is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate last year, and González Urrutia was a candidate for the Venezuelan opposition in the 2024 presidential election, which Machado was then barred from by Venezuelan electoral authorities. Rubio said he has great respect for both leaders, but in response to a question about whether the United States is working on a transition to rule by these Venezuelan opposition figures, he replied: "Our mission right now is different. This is not the Middle East. This is the Western Hemisphere. We have a country with enormous potential that has become close to Iran, Hezbollah, drug cartels and has allowed mass migration. Eight or nine million people have left the country since 2014. This affects us too. This is what we want to deal with now." He emphasized that these are threats to the national interest of the United States.
In the interview, Rubio confirmed that he had spoken on the phone with Delcy Rodriguez, who, as the TV presenter stated, according to President Trump, has already been sworn in as president and leader of Venezuela. Rodriguez was previously the vice president of Venezuela. Journalist Brennan asked Rubio if Rodriguez had promised him to expel all opponents of American interests from Venezuelan territory and what exactly they agreed on during their conversation.
Rubio emphasized that the goals of the United States have not changed. “We want the drug trafficking to stop. We don't want more members of criminal gangs to come to our country. We don't want to see an Iranian presence and, by the way, a Cuban presence, as it was in the past. We want the oil industry in this country not to benefit pirates and enemies of the United States, but to benefit the people. We want to see all of this happen. We insist that it happen.“ Rubio said Washington would continue to work to achieve all of these goals, but did not directly answer the question of whether Rodriguez had promised him assistance in this direction. “But our goals remain the same. The difference is that the man who was at the helm of Venezuela - even though it was illegitimate in the past - was a man who could not be worked with. We simply could not work with him. He never honored any agreement he made, broke every deal he ever made, and made a laughingstock of the Biden administration with the agreement they made with him. We offered him many times the opportunity to step down in a positive way. He chose not to do it and now he's in New York," Rubio said.
In response to a question about whether Rodriguez is someone Washington could work with and whether she has said that Venezuela will transition to democracy and Machado will take over, Rubio said: "We're going to make our assessments of the people... We're going to make assessments based on what they do, not what they say publicly in the meantime, not necessarily what they've done in the past in many cases, but what they're going to do going forward. So we'll find out. You're asking me if I know what decisions the people are going to make. I don't know. What I do know is this: if they don't make the right decisions, the United States will retain multiple levers of pressure to ensure that our interests are protected, including the oil embargo that is in place, among other measures. So we'll judge going forward. We will judge everything by their actions and see what they do“.
Rubio was also reminded that yesterday Trump stated that Maria Corina Machado does not have the support or respect in Venezuela, in response to which Rubio recalled that Machado's name was not on the ballot for the last presidential election, and that González Urrutia's name was. He added that since these elections “were illegitimate, therefore he is not a legitimate president“.
In response to a question from journalist Brennan whether there was an agreement negotiated for a transition to democracy in Venezuela, Rubio said that Trump had pointed out something obvious yesterday and that there should be a little realism. “This regime, this system of Chavismo, has been in power for 15-16 years. And everyone is asking why 24 hours after the arrest of Nicolas Maduro there are no elections scheduled for tomorrow. That is absurd,” he added, stressing that “these things take time.”
The Secretary of State said he would not go into detail publicly on these issues, stressing that American expectations remain the same and that the United States will evaluate anyone it interacts with going forward based on whether the aforementioned American conditions are met. “Of course, we want to see Venezuela become something completely different from what it is today. But we obviously do not expect that to happen in the next 15 hours. What we expect is that there will be movement in that direction. We believe that this is in our national interest and, frankly, in the interest of the people of Venezuela,” he stressed.
Rubio summarized that what happened yesterday in Venezuela was “ the arrest of a drug trafficker who will now face trial in the United States for the crimes he committed against the American people for 15 years. He said that Maduro's wife helped him in these acts and that is why she was also arrested and will be tried.
“As for oil, it is critically important, not only for powering economies around the world. It is critically important for the future of Venezuela. Their oil industry is completely destroyed. It is destroyed. All those fields that once brought wealth to the country and its people are neglected and bankrupt. They need new investments. It is obvious that they do not have the capacity to revive this industry on their own. They need investments from private companies that will only invest under certain guarantees and conditions. And this must be for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. Right now, all this wealth is being stolen. It ends up in the hands of oligarchs around the world and inside Venezuela. A small group of people are benefiting. The people are not,” Rubio said.
At the end of the interview, the Secretary of State emphasized that “in the 21st century, under the Trump administration, there will be no country like Venezuela in our hemisphere that is in the sphere of influence and a crossroads for Hezbollah, Iran, and any other malign influence in the world.” "It just won't happen."
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said today that there are no parallels between the US military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the Associated Press reported.
Hegseth was asked by a CBS News reporter whether yesterday's military action against Maduro's authoritarian government was different from the US intervention that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "It's the complete opposite," Hegseth said.
"For decades and decades we paid with our blood and got nothing in return from an economic perspective, and President (Donald) Trump turned the tables", the American minister continued.
Now Washington can help the people of Venezuela, Hegseth pointed out. According to him, yesterday the US carried out "the most complex and most successful joint special operation of all time".
According to Hegseth, "Venezuela has a long history of being a rich and prosperous country", but the "terrifying leadership", led by Maduro, has "stolen" the wealth of the Venezuelan people.
In addition, the US Secretary of Defense indicated that a restructuring of Venezuela's inefficient oil industry is imminent: "Oil depots are operating at 20% of their capacity. That will change", Hegseth said.
The US will "manage" Venezuela until a "safe, appropriate and reasonable transition" is ensured, President Trump said yesterday. "We will get our major American oil companies, which are the largest in the world, to get involved, invest billions of dollars, repair the severely damaged infrastructure and start making money for the country,", the US leader assured.