Media365
The United States is prepared to work with Venezuela’s remaining leadership if they “make the right decision,” secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day after US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro in a military operation.“We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do,” Rubio said in an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation. “I do know this: that if they don’t make the right decision, that the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage,” he said.Maduro was captured on Saturday in Caracas during an operation involving US jets, helicopters, warships and ground troops. He has since been transferred to New York, where he is being held in detention ahead of a court appearance expected on Monday on federal narcotrafficking and weapons charges.
Distances US from ‘running’ Venezuela
Rubio’s remarks appeared to temper President Donald Trump’s comments on Saturday, in which Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela and did not rule out putting military “boots on the ground.”Instead, Rubio said Washington was willing to assess cooperation with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, now acting president, and members of Maduro’s former cabinet.“We are going to see what happens moving forward,” he said. “We’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what, you know, what they’ve done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward.”
No push for opposition leadership
Rubio also signalled that the Trump administration may not back Venezuelan opposition figures previously recognised by Washington as legitimate leaders.Asked about opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, Rubio said he had “admiration” for her but stopped short of calling for her – or opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – to take over as interim leader.He said the US wanted to avoid becoming entangled in nation-building efforts.“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different.”Despite signalling openness to dialogue, Rubio said US pressure on Venezuela would continue through a strong naval presence in the Caribbean and an oil export embargo.“That allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next,” he said.Trump, meanwhile, has said the US would remain involved in Venezuela “until such time as the proper transition can take place,” and that senior US officials would oversee the process.
