Summary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio used a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to defend President Donald Trump’s military operation in Venezuela, while also addressing lawmakers’ concerns that the administration’s rhetoric and demands could strain U.S. alliances in Europe and widen military risks beyond the region.
Rubio told senators the operation removed what he described as a major U.S. national security threat in the Western Hemisphere and said the administration would work with interim authorities to stabilize Venezuela. He also argued that the U.S. has made progress since the Jan. 3 raid that sought to depose Maduro, saying lawmakers would see “good and decent progress.”
Rubio said the administration expects improvement over time, describing the interim situation as better than “four weeks ago,” and saying he hoped the U.S. would be “better off” at later points compared with the scenario in which Maduro remained in place. He said Venezuela’s current leaders are cooperating and would soon begin to see benefits.
When pressed on whether Washington would expand military action, Rubio said he would not characterize the U.S. posture as aiming for additional force. “I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to nor do we intend or expect to have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time,” he said. Rubio added that he believed further action would require “the emergence of an imminent threat of the kind that we do not anticipate at this time.”
Rubio also described a plan he said would allow Venezuela to sell oil that is currently subject to U.S. sanctions. He said oil revenue would be set aside to fund basic government services such as policing and health care, with proceeds deposited in a U.S. Treasury-controlled account and released after the U.S. approves monthly budgets submitted by Venezuela.
Republicans on the panel largely praised the operation, while Democrats expressed skepticism about whether replacing Maduro’s government would address the underlying political and economic problems in Venezuela. Senators raised concerns that the Trump administration’s moves could encourage additional actions by China and Russia in other theaters, including around Taiwan and Ukraine, and they also questioned Trump’s threats about Greenland and his criticisms of NATO contributions.
Rubio sought to blunt those concerns, telling senators the uproar within NATO over Greenland is calming and that discussions are underway about how to address Trump’s demands. He said he expected the U.S. to “get something positive done,” and he repeated a familiar complaint that NATO members need to increase their defense budgets. “NATO needs to be reimagined,” Rubio said, adding that he viewed Trump as complaining “louder” than other presidents.
Rubio also addressed how he sees China’s Taiwan ambitions in relation to events in Venezuela, saying China’s goal to reunify Taiwan with the mainland would not be changed by other developments. “The situation on Taiwan is a legacy project” that Chinese President Xi Jinping has made “very clear that that’s what he intends to do,” Rubio said.
On Iran, Rubio said there was no current plan to attack and said any change of government in Tehran would require “a lot of careful thinking” and would be “far more complex” than removing Maduro. He said an increased U.S. military presence in the Middle East—describing an aircraft carrier and warships arriving this week—was meant to defend against what could be an Iranian threat to U.S. personnel.
The hearing also produced new details from the committee’s Republican chairman, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, who described the raid in Caracas as small in scope and brief in duration. Risch said the operation involved “only about 200 troops” and a “firefight that lasted less than 27 minutes,” and he characterized it as “incredibly brief, targeted and successful.” Risch said the U.S. and others may need to help Venezuela as it seeks to restore democratic elections, adding that oversight could be needed to ensure elections are “free and fair.”
Democrats challenged the premise that the operation’s limited battlefield outcome necessarily translates into political improvement. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire asked whether the U.S. traded one dictator for another, saying, “We’ve traded one dictator for another, so it’s no wonder that so many of my constituents are asking, why is the president spending so much time focused on Venezuela instead of the cost of living and their kitchen table economic concerns?” She also said that, from Venezuela to Europe, the U.S. was spending more, risking more and “achieving less.”
Rubio’s strongest statement to the panel emphasized what he said the end state should be for Venezuela, arguing that the U.S. wants “a Venezuela that has legitimate democratic elections.” After the hearing, Rubio said he met Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the State Department, and Rubio pointed to Machado’s stated intention to return to Venezuela. Machado posted on X that “we are moving forward with firm steps” and said she would return “very soon to work together on the transition and the building of an exceptional country.”
Rubio faced additional questioning about how the U.S. would cooperate with interim leaders tied to Maduro’s authoritarian government, according to the hearing record. The U.S. has said its demands for Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who is now the acting president, include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to U.S. companies, providing preferential access to production, using oil revenue to purchase American goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.
Neither Rodríguez nor her government’s press office immediately commented on Rubio’s remarks, but the vice president previously said on Tuesday that Venezuela and the U.S. have “established respectful and courteous channels of communication.” The State Department said it intends to begin sending additional diplomatic and support personnel to Caracas to prepare for a possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy, which shuttered in 2019, though Rubio and lawmakers’ questions suggested the path to full normalization would still require major diplomatic steps, including revoking U.S. recognition of the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election as legitimate.
Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, and David Klepper in Washington contributed to this report.