U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio’s statements on TV talk shows seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building.
They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation — comments that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
But Rubio offered a more nuanced take, saying the U.S. would continue to enforce an oil quarantine that was already in place on sanctioned tankers before Maduro was removed from power early Saturday and use that leverage as a means to press for policy changes in Venezuela.
“And so that’s the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says that,” Rubio said on CBS News’ Face the Nation.
“We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking.”
The blockade on sanctioned oil tankers — some of which have been seized by the U.S. — “remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” Rubio said.
Former Chilean ambassador to China Jorge Heine says a ‘certain threshold has been crossed’ after the U.S. struck several locations across Venezuela and apprehended the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. He discusses the capture and the role of oil in American attacks on Venezuela.
Trump’s vow to ‘run’ Venezuela brings unease
Trump’s vow to “run” Venezuela, repeated more than half a dozen times at a news conference in Florida on Saturday, sparked concerns among some Democrats.
It also drew unease from parts of his own Republican coalition, including an “America First” base that is opposed to foreign interventions, and also from observers who recalled past nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rubio dismissed such criticism, saying that Trump’s intent had been misunderstood by a “foreign policy establishment” that was fixated on the Middle East.
“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”
Rubio also suggested that the U.S. would give Maduro’s subordinates who are now in charge time to govern, saying, “We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do.” And though he did not rule out a U.S. military presence in Venezuela, Rubio said the current U.S. “force posture” was capable of stopping drug boats and sanctioned tankers.
A day earlier, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” He later pointed to his national security team with him, including Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and said it would be done for a period of time by “the people that are standing right behind me. We’re gonna be running it we’re gonna be bringing it back.”
The White House declined to comment beyond what Trump said on Saturday.
Maduro’s arrival in New York
Maduro landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York City’s northern suburbs following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas — an act that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.”
The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his country will ‘run’ Venezuela following the U.S.-led ouster of President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday. Trump did not provide a timeline but said the stewardship would last until ‘a proper transition can take place.’
The dramatic seizure of the Maduros capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval.
Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.
As Venezuela grapples with the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s top court has named Delcy Rodríguez as the acting president. The 56-year-old has served as Venezuela’s vice-president since 2018.
After arriving at the airport, Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including an armoured car, was waiting to whisk him to a nearby U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office.
A video posted on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through that office by two DEA agents grasping his arms.
He is due to make his first appearance on Monday in Manhattan’s federal court.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment on Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fuelled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country’s leader.
The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs.
Last month, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.
Quiet falls on Venezuela after U.S. operation
Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama’s leader, Manuel Noriega, following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights” in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their manoeuvres for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”
Venezuela’s capital remained unusually quiet on Sunday, with few vehicles moving around and convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses closed. On a road typically filled with runners, cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts on Sundays, only a handful of people worked out the day after Maduro was deposed.
The presidential palace was guarded by armed civilians and members of the military. At a nearby plaza, only a street sweeper and a soldier stood, and across the street, a church remained closed for the second day in a row.
Caracas resident David Leal arrived at the lot where he parks vehicles for a living, only to quickly realize that he would likely not see any clients for a second day.
“People are still shaken,” said Leal, 77.
