Rubio says US will use oil leverage to shape Venezuela’s transition after ousting of Maduro

Appearing Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rubio said the US will continue its quarantine on Venezuelan oil shipments while overseeing the country during a transitional period announced by President Donald Trump after Saturday’s operation. Rubio described Venezuela’s oil sector as severely mismanaged and said maintaining restrictions gives the US leverage to push reforms that align with national interests and improve conditions inside the country.

“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, so that they kick the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ELN (National Liberation Army) out, and that they no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere,” Rubio said.

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On Saturday morning, the Trump administration carried out an operation that saw both Maduro and his wife captured and taken back to the US to face charges of narco-terrorism. Rubio was asked why US forces captured Maduro and his wife rather than other individuals in Venezuela who the Department of Justice has also indicted. He said Maduro was the top priority and the primary focus of the operation, which he described as a precise military mission that successfully entered the country, detained Maduro, and exited without the loss of any American lives.

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Rubio also appeared Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he explained that the administration’s first steps involve securing US interests while stabilizing Venezuela.

“No more drug trafficking. No more Iran/Hezbollah presence there, and no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world,” he said.

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Rubio echoed the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, arguing that Venezuela’s location in the Western Hemisphere makes it a strategic priority for the United States. "This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” he explained.

“We are not going to be able to allow in our hemisphere a country that becomes a crossroads for the activities of all of our adversaries around the world,” Rubio added.

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Rubio said he is “very involved” in overseeing Venezuela during the transition and said the intelligence apparatus is running “policy” with the goal of producing changes that benefit both the United States and the Venezuelan people, whom he said have “suffered tremendously,” while also stabilizing the region.

He stressed that the US presence in Venezuela is not a war against the country itself, but rather a continuation of the war against “drug trafficking organizations.”

Rubio also dismissed comparisons to US involvement in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan, criticizing “experts” who equate the Venezuela situation with past Middle East interventions. He said Venezuela is fundamentally different in culture, society, and political structure, adding that “people need to stop ascribing apples and oranges.”