The Trump administration sent mixed messages Sunday regarding U.S. control in Venezuela after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested a more limited approach, while President Donald Trump reiterated that the U.S. is now “in charge.”
Secretary Rubio sought to address concerns that the U.S. operation to remove Maduro could lead to another prolonged foreign engagement, according to the Associated Press.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rubio stated that the United States would not manage Venezuela’s daily affairs. Instead, Washington would enforce the oil embargo on sanctioned tankers to press for policy changes in Venezuela.
“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,” Rubio said, according to AP.
The Secretary of State rejected comparisons to previous U.S. interventions in the Middle East. “The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio stated. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”
Trump Maintains Hard Line
President Trump, however, continued to assert broad U.S. authority over Venezuela’s future, the Associated Press reported.
“We’re in charge,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Sunday night. “We’re going to run it, fix it.”
The president said he wanted “total access” to all aspects of Venezuela, from major oil operations to basic infrastructure.
“We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country,” Trump stated, according to AP.
Trump’s comments have raised concerns among some Democrats and caused unease within his Republican coalition, including the “America First” base, which is typically opposed to foreign interventions.
In a notable shift, Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez adopted a conciliatory stance after initially condemning the U.S. operation as an “atrocity,” the Associated Press reported.
“We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” Rodríguez wrote in an online post.
This change followed Trump’s warning that she could “pay a very big price” if she did not comply with U.S. demands. Venezuela’s Supreme Court had previously ruled that Rodríguez would serve as acting president.
Trump told reporters Sunday night that Rodríguez is now “cooperating,” but he repeated his earlier warnings.
Cuban Casualties Confirmed
Cuba announced that 32 Cuban security officers were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela, a figure Trump acknowledged, according to the Associated Press.
“You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday,” Trump said. “There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.”
The former Venezuelan president is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday in federal court in Manhattan, AP reported.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken from their home on a military base in Caracas during a nighttime operation that Maduro’s government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday, describing Maduro’s administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” supported by a drug-trafficking operation that allegedly brought large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were first indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Questions Over Legality
Legal experts have questioned the legality of the operation, which was conducted without congressional approval, the Associated Press noted.
Even before Maduro’s capture, scholars questioned aspects of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign, including deadly bombings of boats accused of drug trafficking that some argued exceeded the limits of international law.
Rubio did not rule out the possibility of U.S. troops in Venezuela but said the United States had already established a sufficient presence in the region to stop alleged drug boats and sanctioned oil tankers.
“That’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will remain until we see changes that not only advance the national interest of the United States, which is our top priority, but also lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” Rubio said.
Venezuela’s government continued operating over the weekend with ministers remaining in their posts, according to AP correspondents on the ground.
The capital was unusually quiet on Sunday, with few vehicles on the streets and most businesses closed. Maduro’s son, lawmaker Nicolás Ernesto Guerra, has not appeared in public since the operation.
The country’s incoming National Assembly is set to be sworn in at the legislative palace in Caracas. The unicameral assembly will remain under the control of the ruling party.
This article is based on reporting by the Associated Press.
