Secretary of State Marco Rubio says U.S. capture of Maduro is not a war against Venezuela
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed Sunday that the goal of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, which led to the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, on Saturday, was primarily to stop drug trafficking to the United States and that holding elections in Venezuela would be “premature at this point.”
“We care about elections, we care about democracy, we care about all of that, but the first thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States. And that’s what we’re going to focus on first and foremost here,” Rubio told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. military forces had captured the nation’s leader and his wife.
Earlier in the interview, Rubio brought up the recent elections, which Maduro claimed he won despite ample evidence of his defeat.
“There was an election. They lost it and they didn’t count the votes. Or they refused to count the votes, and everyone knows that. So all of this, I think, is premature at this point,” the secretary of state said.
On Saturday, Trump announced that the United States would “run” Venezuela until the country can carry out its own peaceful transfer of power, but Rubio clarified on Sunday that the president meant “conducting a policy” in Venezuela that is “good for the Venezuelan people” and is “in our national interest.”
He reiterated that the Trump administration has “short-term issues that need to be resolved immediately” before helping Venezuela in its transition to democracy.
“We all want to see a bright future for Venezuela, a transition to democracy. All of those things are great, and we all want to see that,” the secretary of state said, adding, “but what we’re talking about is what happens over the next two, three weeks, two, three months, and how that relates to the national interest of the United States.”
Rubio added that Maduro, when he still led Venezuela, did not cooperate with stated U.S. goals to reduce drug trafficking from South America.
The secretary of state then laid out the United States’ demands on Venezuela, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker: “You can’t flood this country with gang members.
Rubio also addressed one of Trump’s stated goals during his Saturday press conference, namely allowing U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
“We’re going to ask our very large American oil companies, the largest in the world, to come in, spend billions of dollars, repair the badly damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” the president said Saturday.
On Sunday, Rubio clarified: “We don’t need Venezuela’s oil. We have plenty of it in the United States.”
But the secretary of state said the Trump administration’s goal was to curb investment by U.S. rivals, such as China, Russia and Iran, in Venezuela’s oil industry.
“What we are not going to allow is Venezuela’s oil industry to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand why does China need its oil? Why does Russia need its oil? Why does Iran need its oil? They’re not even on this continent,” Rubio said. “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live, and we are not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for the adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States.”
On Saturday, Maduro arrived in the United States, where he will appear in court to face criminal charges starting Monday.
At a news conference Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, had been sworn in as president and was in contact with U.S. officials, including Rubio. Later Saturday, in a national address, Rodriguez told Venezuelans: “We demand the immediate release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores,” calling Maduro “the only president of Venezuela.”
