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Rubio says Trump administration will maintain ‘leverage’ over Venezuela’s future after its capture of Maduro
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Sen. Murphy: Rubio and Hegseth ‘literally lied to our face’ about regime change in Venezuela
01:08 • Source: CNN
Sen. Murphy: Rubio and Hegseth ‘literally lied to our face’ about regime change in Venezuela
01:08
• Venezuela’s future: The US is starting to outline its plans for Venezuela after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, prioritizing administrative stability and repairing the country’s oil infrastructure over an immediate turn to democracy, according to US officials.
• Troops and oil: President Donald Trump won’t rule out putting US forces in Venezuela as he maintains “leverage” over the country’s future, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today in TV interviews. Rubio also rejected claims that Maduro’s capture was about gaining access to the massive oil reserves.
• A stunning ouster: The streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities have been quiet today, aside from long lines for groceries and other supplies amid widespread apprehension about what comes next. Meanwhile, in the US, Venezuelans who fled the country are rejoicing.
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, expressed outrage today that he had not been contacted directly by the Trump administration after the operation to capture and arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“Still haven’t gotten a phone call,” Himes told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” explaining that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff called staff on the intelligence committee yesterday, but “this is a long pattern, and a particularly egregious example of a pattern of this administration not given a hoot about the United States Congress.”
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford defended the administration’s decision not to tell Congress about Maduro’s arrest in advance of the operation.
Crawford argued on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” that they were not required to do so because it was a “law enforcement action, first and foremost,” and they were also acting in the interest of protecting “operational security.”
CNN’s David Culver is reporting today from Cúcuta, Colombia, where he’s monitoring a heavy military presence at the border with Venezuela.
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Colombia strengthens border with Venezuela after US strikes
02:54
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton emphasized that the desired outcome in Venezuela is a government that supports American interests.
“What we want is a future Venezuelan government that will be pro-American, that will contribute to stability, order and prosperity, not only in Venezuela, but in our own backyard,” Cotton said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that new “legitimate” elections including members of the country’s opposition party will likely be a next step.
Cotton acknowledged that the US doesn’t recognize Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who has now claimed authority, as the “legitimate ruler” of Venezuela, since she and Maduro came to power by claiming victory in an election that was widely scrutinized in Venezuela and by the international community.
Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash on if he would support US troops on the ground in Venezuela, particularly to protect oil fields, Cotton responded, “I think that Delcy Rodríguez and the other ministers Venezuela understand now what the US military is capable of.”
In a separate interview on CBS today, Cotton warned, “What we just did with Nicolás Maduro could be done again to other Venezuelan leaders,” highlighting that many other of the country’s officials have been indicted in US courts and sanctioned.
He said he interpreted Trump’s statement about potential follow-up strikes in Venezuela as “urging them to change their ways or face the same consequences.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio began laying out the Trump administration’s position on the future of Venezuela during a series of interviews on Sunday morning political talk shows.
Rubio faced a slew of questions over the US role in the country following yesterday’s capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
The secretary of state sought to clarify President Donald Trump’s claim that the US will be “running” Venezuela in the near-term, saying the administration’s focus is on setting future policy.
“It’s running policy,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that the “entire national security apparatus” will be involved in those decisions.
The top US diplomat also said the US wants to see a democratic transition in Venezuela, but he did not provide a timeline for that process.
He told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the expectation of a quick turnaround election after Maduro’s arrest is “absurd” given that the country has had “this system of Chavismo in place for 15 or 16 years.”
Here’s what else Rubio said this morning:
- Not ruling out US troops: Rubio told CBS that Trump doesn’t want to publicly rule out occupying Venezuela or putting troops in the country, as he maintains “leverage” over the country’s future via several avenues.
- Plans for Venezuelan oil: Rubio rejected claims that capturing Maduro was about giving US companies easier access to the country’s massive oil reserves. But he did predict that Trump’s plan to recruit US companies to refurbish Venezuela’s gutted industry would succeed, telling ABC’s “This Week” that he expects “dramatic interest from Western companies.”
- Eyes on interim leadership: Rubio said the US will judge Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez on what she does moving forward as acting president. Rubio told NBC, “We expect to see more compliance and cooperation than we were previously receiving.”
- US not backing opposition: While Rubio praised Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado and her democratic movement, he said most of the opposition has left Venezuela. “We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away,” Rubio told NBC, when asked why Trump has not embraced the movement as the country’s future.
- Regime members remain: Rubio argued on CBS that it would not have been feasible to also capture other Maduro officials who have been indicted by the US government during yesterday’s operation. “We got the top priority,” he said.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
This post has been updated with Rubio’s comments on Venezuelan oil.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López has warned that US President Donald Trump’s decision to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores constitutes a threat to geopolitical stability.
“This represents a real threat to world order,” said Padrino López at a news conference.
“If today it was Venezuela, tomorrow it could be any state, any country.”
Padrino López went on to criticize the Trump administration’s foreign policy more widely.
“We reject the colonialist ideas that they want to implement, in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, over Latin America and the Caribbean,” he added.
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said Sunday that “much of” deposed President Nicolás Maduro’s security team was killed in the United States’ raid on Saturday.
The raid saw the “cold-bloodedly killing (of) much of his security team, soldiers, and innocent civilians,” López in a video address.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio today rejected claims that President Donald Trump’s decision to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was about making it easier for US oil companies to make deals once he was gone.
“What happened here is that we arrested a narcotrafficker who’s now going to stand trial in the United States for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” when asked if the move was made to favor oil companies.
On ABC’s “This Week,” Rubio said he has not had direct communications with oil companies yet, but that he’s spoken to the secretaries of the Departments of Interior and Energy, who will be in touch with the companies, and predicts “dramatic interest from Western companies” and “non-Russian, non-Chinese companies.”
“Our refineries in the Gulf Coast of the United States are the best in terms of refining this heavy crude,” Rubio said. “And there’s actually been a shortage of heavy crude around the world that so I think there would be tremendous demand and interest from private industry if given the space to do it, if given the opportunity to do it.”
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López demanded Sunday the “immediate return” of deposed President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores after they were captured by the United States.
“We demand the return of Maduro and the First Lady,” López said in a news conference. “This is an act of aggression against the legitimate president of Venezuela and the First Lady.”
Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized President Donald Trump’s move to strike Venezuela and remove its leader, Nicolás Maduro, saying it betrays the promise of “America first” and that the MAGA movement is “tired of being ignored.”
Greene suggested she doesn’t believe the US removed Maduro to stem the flow of drugs from Venezuela, saying that the administration would be going after Mexican cartels if that were the case. She told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that while she doesn’t support Maduro, “this is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of.”
She added that Maduro’s removal “doesn’t serve the American people … but actually serves the big corporations, the banks and the oil executives. And so, my pushback here is on the Trump administration that campaigned on Make America Great Again – that we thought was putting America first.”
Greene said the people who voted to put President Donald Trump in office should “matter.”
“MAGA has its own enemy list, and the enemies of the worlds are not on their enemy list, and they’re tired of being ignored,” Greene said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said the United States wants to see a democratic transition in Venezuela but would not give a timeline.
Rubio argued that the administration “needs to deal with the immediate reality” and said discussing a potential timeline for elections in Venezuela was “premature.”
“We have short term things that have to be addressed right away. We all wish to see a bright future for Venezuela, transition to democracy. All these things are great, and we all want to see that,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Rubio said on CBS’ Face the Nation that “there has to be a little realism here.”
“They’ve had this system of Chavismo in place for 15 or 16 years, and everyone’s asking, why 24 hours after Nicolas Maduro was arrested, there isn’t an election scheduled for tomorrow? That’s absurd,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the administration’s decision to only depose Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and not other top members of his government who have also been indicted by the US government on drug charges.
The top US diplomat indicated it would not have been feasible to go after officials like Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, both of whom have also been indicted by the US government.
“They’re already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else that we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people,” Rubio said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.
“We got the top priority,” he said, noting it was not an easy mission to capture Maduro and his wife.
Padrino Lopez and Cabello have $15 million and $25 million bounties for their arrest, respectively. Cabello, like Maduro, was charged with “narco-terrorism.”
Top congressional Democrats said today they think President Donald Trump and his administration were acting outside of their authority by carrying out an operation to capture and indict Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“Maduro is a horrible, horrible person, but you don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness, and that’s what’s happened here,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, told NBC that while he believes Maduro is a “bad guy” who will now face trial in the US, “it remains to be seen whether the people of Venezuela are going to be better off.”
“Donald Trump claims that he’s going to run Venezuela. He’s done a terrible job running the United States of America,” Jeffries added.
Schumer said he and Sens. Tim Kaine and Rand Paul intend to bring up to the Senate floor a resolution seeking to curb Trump’s ability to use the military in Venezuela without authorization from Congress.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wouldn’t say directly if Cuba might be the Trump administration’s next target, however he called the Cuban government “a huge problem” and pointed out how it was Cubans, not Venezuelans, who were guarding Nicolas Maduro before his ultimate capture.
Rubio also stressed that it was the Cubans who were “propping up Maduro.”
On Saturday, Trump told the New York Post that a lot of Cubans died during the United States operation to capture and extract Maduro and his wife from Venezuela. He did not specify how many died.
“You know, many Cubans lost their lives last night. … They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move,” Trump said.
While Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday praised Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado and her democratic movement, he said the reality of the situation is that most of the opposition has left the country.
“The immediate reality is that unfortunately and sadly, but unfortunately, the vast majority of the opposition is no longer present inside of Venezuela. We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Rubio argued that those left in place in the Maduro government, including acting president Delcy Rodríguez, will be “a lot more compliant” than Maduro after his capture.
“We went in, we grabbed him. He was arrested, and he’s now in New York. No Americans were killed, no equipment was lost. It had to be done, and it’s been done. And I assure you, the people left behind in Venezuela now that are in charge of the police and everything else, I assure you they’re going to probably be a lot more compliant than Maduro was, as a result of this,” Rubio said.
Context: The US and most Western governments recognize Edmundo González Urrutia, a Machado ally who is in self-imposed exile in Spain, as the legitimate winner of the contested 2024 presidential election in Venezuela. Rubio called González and Machado shortly after becoming secretary of state in January 2025, with his spokesperson referring to González as “Venezuela’s rightful president.”
But President Donald Trump on Saturday said he wasn’t confident that Machado, who spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before traveling secretly to Oslo to accept her Nobel Prize, had enough support to lead the country.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, defended his administration’s strikes on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolas Maduro saying Trump is following “America first” principles.
“I trust the president to make decisions that are in the best interest of Americans of our country. This president gets results,” said Jordan in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union.
When Bash pressed Jordan on Trump’s promises to focus on domestic issues such as lowering prices, Jordan listed several accomplishments, including “getting a bad guy brought to justice who’s had a five-year arrest warrant.”
Jordan also defended Trump’s pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of drug trafficking, saying that the pardon power is “exclusive to the president” and that “they can exercise it how they choose.” The Justice Department charged Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy, among other charges.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was pressed specifically on Sunday about President Donald Trump’s statement that the US will be running Venezuela for the time being.
“Well, it’s not running — it’s running policy, the policy,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “With regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in our national interest, it either touches on something that’s a threat to our national security or touches on something that’s either beneficial or harmful.”
Rubio said he’s “very involved” alongside the Defense Department and Justice Department.
“This is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy, and the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that’s who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously,” Rubio said.
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Colombia reinforces border with Venezuela after US strikes
00:40 • Source: CNN
Colombia reinforces border with Venezuela after US strikes
00:40
There are more than 30,000 Colombian troops currently positioned along the country’s 2,200-kilometer (1,378-mile) border with Venezuela, the country’s defense minister has told CNN, following US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez said the troops were prioritizing areas that target two drug trafficking cartels: the National Liberation Army (ELN) and Tren de Aragua.
Correction: A previous version of this post misstated Sánchez’s title. He is Colombia’s defense minister.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this morning that President Donald Trump does not want to publicly rule out US occupation of Venezuela or putting troops in the country, after his administration captured leader Nicolás Maduro and said the US will “run” the country for now.
“He does not feel like he is going to publicly rule out options that are available for the United States, even though (troops on the ground is) not what you’re seeing right now. What you’re seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Rubio said Trump wants to retain “optionality” on whether to send troops to the country, but pointed to the US’ “force posture” in the region, which he said the administration will retain by continuing to strike alleged drug boats and maintaining the blockade of sanctioned vessels entering and leaving Venezuela. He added that the actions have the ability to paralyze how part of how the regime generates revenue.
“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, so that we no longer have these gang problems,” Rubio said.
Context: At a press conference yesterday, Trump said the US is “not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have.” Asked by CNN’s Kevin Liptak whether he envisions US boots on the ground while the US essentially runs the Venezuelan government in an interim period, Trump said, “Well, no, we’re going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.”
Eight countries belonging to the oil cartel OPEC+ reaffirmed on Sunday their decision to maintain the oil production levels that were decided in November.
The eight members — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — had decided to increase December oil production but “pause production increments in February and March due to seasonality.” The countries pump about half of the world’s oil.
OPEC+ members on Sunday reaffirmed “adopting a cautious approach” and to remain flexible when adjusting production levels, as the organization faces concerns about falling demand as the global economy struggles with inflation and affordability due to post-pandemic price shocks.
The announcement comes after the US strikes against Venezuela early Saturday and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
US President Donald Trump said at a news conference that the United States will “run” Venezuela in the wake of the military operation and invest in the country’s oil infrastructure. Venezuela is sitting on a massive 303 billion barrels worth of crude — about a fifth of the world’s global reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
“We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It’ll be paid for by the oil companies directly,” Trump said.
The eight members said on Sunday that they will “fully compensate for any overproduced volume” since January 2024.
Trump administration is not considering reinstating an immigration program offering temporary legal status to Venezuelans, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday.
“Venezuela today is more free then it was yesterday, and it will continue to be that way as long as President Trump is in the White House and is making sure that he’s protecting the interest of the American people, because that ripple effect will continue to bring that kind of liberty to Venezuela as well,” Noem said on Fox News Sunday.
Decisions like the one to suspend Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, she said, are “made in conjunction with the State Department, with the White House and then we at Homeland Security implement them and make sure that they are followed through.”
The DHS Secretary also weighed in on the selection of future leaders in Venezuela after President Donald Trump suggested the US would be involved in the governance and leader selection process for the country.
“We want a partner that understands that we will protect America, we will protect America and whatever it takes to stop the flow of drugs and stop terrorists from coming into our country,” she said. ”We need to work together, and we haven’t had that in Venezuela… so we are looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people, but also ensure that they are not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”
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