WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans on Wednesday to warn that the Trump administration is ready to take new military action against Venezuela if the country’s interim leadership deviates from US expectations.
In testimony prepared for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio says that the United States is not at war with Venezuela and that its interim leaders are cooperating, but he notes that the Trump administration does not rule out using additional force if necessary after a raid to capture former President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio will say, according to his prepared opening statement released Tuesday by the State Department. “It is our hope that this will not be necessary, but we will never shy away from our duty to the American people and our mission in this hemisphere.”
As he is often called upon to do, Rubio, a former Florida senator, will aim to sell one of President Donald Trump’s most contentious priorities to former colleagues in Congress. With the administration’s foreign policy pivoting between the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East, Rubio may also be called upon to ease the alarm he has raised in his own party recently about efforts such as Trump’s claim to annex Greenland.
In the Venezuela-focused hearing, Rubio will defend Trump’s decisions to remove Maduro to face drug-trafficking charges in the United States, continue deadly military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats and seize sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, according to prepared remarks. He will again deny allegations that Trump is violating the Constitution by taking such actions.
“There is no war against Venezuela, and we have not occupied a country,” he will say, according to prepared remarks. “There are no US troops on the ground. This was an operation to assist law enforcement.”
Congress did not slow Trump down on Venezuela
Congressional Democrats condemned Trump’s moves as overstepping the authority of the executive branch, while most — but not all — Republicans supported them as a legitimate exercise of presidential power.
The House narrowly defeated a war powers act that would have directed Trump to remove US troops from Venezuela. As Rubio will argue, the administration says there are no US troops on the ground in the South American nation despite a large military buildup in the region.
Democrats had argued that the resolution was needed after the US raid to capture Maduro and because Trump has declared plans to control the country’s oil industry for years to come.
The pushback has begun in the courts, too, as the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike filed what is believed to be the first wrongful death case stemming from the campaign. Three dozen attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean have killed at least 126 people since September.
The United States takes steps to normalize ties, while still issuing warnings
While keeping pressure on what the Trump administration calls “drug traffickers” without providing evidence, US officials are also working to normalize ties with Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. Despite this, Rubio will make it clear in his testimony that she has little choice but to comply with Trump’s demands.
“Rodríguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her own interest aligns with the advancement of our main objectives,” Rubio will say, noting that these include opening the Venezuelan energy sector to US companies, providing preferential access to production, using oil revenues to buy American goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.
Rodríguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president, said on Tuesday that her government and the Trump administration “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication.” During televised remarks, Rodríguez said she is working with Trump and Rubio to establish a “working agenda.”
So far, she has appeared to agree to Trump’s demands and release prisoners jailed by the government under Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez. On Monday, the head of a Venezuelan human rights group said that 266 political prisoners had been freed since January 8.
Trump had praised the releases, saying on social media that he would like to “thank the leadership of Venezuela for agreeing to this powerful humanitarian gesture!”
In a major step toward restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, the State Department notified Congress this week that it intends to begin sending additional diplomatic and support personnel to Caracas to prepare for the possible reopening of the United States Embassy there.
It was the first formal announcement of the administration’s intention to reopen the embassy, which was closed in 2019. Full normalization of ties, however, would require the United States to revoke its decision to recognize the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate government.
Rubio also planned to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado later Wednesday at the State Department.
Machado went into hiding after Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election despite enough credible evidence to the contrary. She came out again in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. After Maduro was ousted, she came to Washington. In a meeting with Trump, she presented him with her Peace Prize medal, an extraordinary gesture considering that Trump effectively rejected her.
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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.