WASHINGTON — Top Trump administration officials have clarified their position on the issue. “running” Venezuela after seizing President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend and pressuring the government, which remains in power there on Sunday, to agree to US demands for access to oil and a crackdown on drugs or face further military action.
Their goal appears to be the creation of a pliable vassal state in Caracas that will keep the current Maduro-led government of more than a decade largely in place but ultimately subject to the whims of Washington after turning its back on the United States for a quarter of a century.
This leaves little room for the strengthening of Venezuela's democratic opposition, which won the country's last national electionsAccording to the State Department, European capitals and international monitoring bodies.
President Trump and his top aides have said they will try to work with Maduro's chosen vice president and current interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, to govern the country and its oil sector “until we can achieve a safe, proper and reasonable transition,” without offering any time frame for the proposed elections.
Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem emphasized the strategy in a series of interviews Sunday morning.
“If she doesn't do what's right, she's going to have to pay a very big price, probably more than Maduro did,” Trump told the Atlantic, referring to Rodriguez. “Rebuilding there and regime change, whatever you want to call it, is better than what you have now. It can't get any worse.”
Rubio said the U.S. Navy quarantine of Venezuelan oil tankers will continue until Rodriguez cooperates with the U.S. administration, citing the blockade — and the ongoing threat of additional military action from the fleet off the coast of Venezuela — as “leverage” on the remnants of Maduro’s government.
“That's the kind of control the president is pointing to when he says this,” Rubio told CBS News. “As we continue the lockdown, we expect to see changes happen – not only in the way the oil industry operates for the benefit of the people, but also in stopping drug trafficking.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN that he has been in contact with the administration since the Saturday night operation in which Maduro and his wife were abducted from their bedroom and taken to New York, where they will face criminal charges.
Cotton said Trump's vow to “govern” the country “means that Venezuela's new leaders must meet our demands.”
“Delcy Rodriguez and other ministers in Venezuela now understand what the US military is capable of,” Cotton said, adding: “It is a fact that she and others who are indicted and sanctioned are in Venezuela. They control the military and security forces. We have to deal with that fact. But that does not make them the rightful leaders.”
“What we want is a future government in Venezuela that is pro-American and promotes stability, order and prosperity not only in Venezuela but in our own backyard. That would probably have to include new elections,” Cotton said.
Whether Rodriguez will cooperate with the administration is an open question.
Trump said Saturday she appeared ready to make “Venezuela great again” in a call with Rubio. But hours later, the interim president gave a speech demanding Maduro's return and vowing that Venezuela would “never again be a colony of any empire.”
The events affected senior figures in Venezuela's democratic opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado, last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate who won the 2024 presidential election that was ultimately stolen by Maduro.
At his Saturday news conference, Trump fired Machado, saying the respected opposition leader was “a very good woman” but “doesn’t have the respect within the country” to lead her.
Elliot Abrams, Trump's special envoy to Venezuela during his first term, said he was skeptical of Rodriguez, a Hugo Chavez aide and avowed supporter Chavismo throughout the Maduro era—would betray the cause.
“The insult to Machado was bizarre, unfair and just plain ignorant,” Abrams told The Times. “Who told him that there is no respect for her?”
Maduro was booked in New York and flown overnight over the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is in federal custody at a facility that has held prisoners such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bernie Madoff and Sam Bankman-Fried.
He is expected to be arraigned as early as Monday on federal charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
While few in Washington expressed regret over Maduro's ouster, Democratic lawmakers criticized the operation as another act of overthrowing a foreign government by a Republican president that could violate international law.
“The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela does not pose a threat to American security,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat. “This is about enriching Trump's oil industry and Wall Street friends. Trump's foreign policy – the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela – is fundamentally corrupt.”
At their Saturday news conference and in subsequent interviews, Trump and Rubio said the attacks on Venezuela were partly about restoring U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, reaffirming President Monroe's philosophy as China and Russia work to expand their presence in the region. The Trump administration's national security strategy, released last month, heralds a renewed focus on Latin America after the region faced decades of neglect from Washington.
Trump has left it unclear whether his military efforts in the region will end with Caracas, a longtime U.S. adversary, or whether he is willing to send U.S. forces against America's allies.
In an interview with the Atlantic, Trump suggested that “individual countries” would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. On Saturday he repeated a threat to the president of Colombia, a major non-NATO ally, to “watch his ass” over an ongoing dispute over Bogota's cooperation on drugs.
On Sunday morning, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the legality of the US operation in Venezuela.
It was not Russia or China – permanent council members and longtime rivals – that called the session, nor France, whose government has questioned whether the operation violates international law, but Colombia, a non-permanent member that joined the council less than a week ago.
