Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified President Donald Trump‘s statement that the United States would “run” Venezuela, saying that this would take place through influencing “policy” rather than direct rule.
In an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press, Rubio gave his first one-on-one interview since the daring U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump raised concerns on Saturday when he said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” but Rubio clarified on Sunday that he meant indirectly.
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“Well, it’s not running. … It’s running policy, the policy,” he answered when asked who specifically was running the country in light of Trump’s comments. “With regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in our national interest, it either touches on something that’s a threat to our national security, or touches on something that’s either beneficial or harmful.”
“So this is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy, and the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that’s who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously,” Rubio added.
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When asked why the U.S. wasn’t supporting opposition leader María Corina Machado’s claim to governance, Rubio expressed his admiration for her but said it wasn’t realistic.
“Unfortunately, the vast majority of the opposition is no longer present inside of Venezuela. We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away,” he said.
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“We all wish to see a bright future for Venezuela, a transition to democracy. All of these things are great, and we all want to see that,” Rubio continued, noting his work on the effort for 15 years in the Senate and his current position.
“But we’re talking about is what happens over the next two to three weeks, two to three months, and how that ties to the national interest of the United States,” he said.
The U.S.’s foremost goal was Caracas’s compliance with U.S. demands, primarily a halt to drug trafficking to the U.S., an end to mass migration, stability, the expulsion of influence of U.S. rivals like China and Iran, and access to oil. Maduro was the biggest barrier to this, Rubio argued.
“And so we expect to see more compliance and cooperation than we were previously receiving. With Nicolas Maduro, you could not make a deal or an arrangement, although he, by the way, was given very generous offers. He could have left Venezuela as recently as a week and a half ago; there were opportunities available for him to avoid all of this because now he’s not someone we can work with,” he said, arguing that Maduro had made a career out of swindling the U.S.
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Rubio even implied that new elections were a long way off.
“Elections? Well, look, this is a country that’s been governed by this regime now for 14 or 15 years. The election should have happened a long time ago. The elections did happen. They lost them, and they didn’t count the votes, or they refused to count the votes, and everyone knows it. So all of that, I think, is premature at this point,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Rubio waved off the possibility of U.S. ground troops in Venezuela, and clarified Washington’s position on access to Venezuelan oil.
“We don’t need Venezuela’s oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we’re not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand: Why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even in this continent. 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 said.
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Another notable comment revolved around fears of regime change, with Rubio lambasting experts raising the possibility of a destabilizing situation like Iraq or Libya happening.
“Very few of them know anything about Venezuela, the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela looks nothing like Libya. It looks nothing like Iraq. It looks nothing like Afghanistan. It looks nothing like the Middle East, other than the Iranian agents that are running through there plotting against America,” he said. “These are Western countries with long traditions … at a people-to-people and cultural level and ties to the United States. So there’s nothing like that. So I think people need to stop ascribing the apples and oranges here, the apples of the Middle East, to the oranges of the Western Hemisphere.”
