By Rosemary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to warn lawmakers on Wednesday that the Trump administration is prepared to take additional military action against Venezuela if the country’s interim leadership fails to meet U.S. demands, underscoring a hardline approach that continues to divide Congress and raise concerns abroad.
In prepared testimony for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio emphasizes that the United States is not at war with Venezuela and that the country’s interim authorities are currently cooperating with Washington. At the same time, he makes clear that the administration is unwilling to rule out further use of force following a recent U.S. operation earlier this month that resulted in the capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro.
“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio says in his opening statement, released Tuesday by the State Department. “It is our hope that this will not prove necessary, but we will never shy away from our duty to the American people and our mission in this hemisphere.”
The appearance places Rubio, a former senator from Florida, once again in the role of defending one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial foreign policy initiatives to his former colleagues. As the administration navigates shifting priorities across Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, Rubio is also expected to address growing unease within his own party over the scope and direction of U.S. foreign policy, including unrelated but contentious proposals such as Trump’s public push to annex Greenland.
The hearing is focused squarely on Venezuela, where Rubio plans to defend the administration’s decision to remove Maduro from power and bring him to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges. He will also stand by ongoing U.S. military actions targeting vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics and the seizure of sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil. According to his prepared remarks, Rubio will again reject accusations that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority.
“There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country,” Rubio says. “There are no U.S. troops on the ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement.”
Maduro, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges in U.S. court, has denounced his capture and continues to claim he remains Venezuela’s rightful president. His removal, however, has not ended debate in Washington over whether the administration’s actions were justified or effective.
Congress has so far declined to rein in Trump’s Venezuela policy. Democrats have sharply criticized the operation as an overreach of executive power, while most Republicans have rallied behind the president, arguing that the actions fall squarely within his authority as commander in chief.
Sen. Jim Risch, the Idaho Republican who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, plans to open the hearing by praising both Trump and Rubio, saying the military actions in and around Venezuela have improved U.S. security and were conducted legally. According to his prepared remarks, Risch will argue that the operation was limited, short in duration, and necessary to protect American interests and citizens.
Democrats on the committee are expected to push back forcefully. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the panel’s top Democrat, plans to question whether the high cost of the operation can be justified, particularly given that many of Maduro’s former allies remain in positions of power.
“The U.S. naval blockade around Venezuela and the raid have already cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” Shaheen says in her prepared statement, “and yet the Maduro regime is still in power.”
The House recently rejected a War Powers resolution that would have directed Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Venezuela. The administration maintains that no American troops are operating inside the country, despite a significant U.S. military presence in the surrounding region. Democrats had argued the measure was necessary in light of the Maduro raid and Trump’s statements about long-term U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil industry.
Legal challenges are also beginning to emerge. Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a U.S. strike on a boat have filed what is believed to be the first wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the campaign. Since September, at least three dozen U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed a minimum of 126 people, according to public accounts.
Even as Rubio delivers his warning to Congress, the administration is taking steps to cautiously normalize relations with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez. U.S. officials continue to label key figures in the former government as narcotraffickers, while simultaneously opening diplomatic channels with Rodríguez’s administration. Rubio’s testimony makes clear, however, that Washington believes she has little room to maneuver.
“Rodríguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro,” Rubio says, adding that the administration believes her personal interests align with U.S. objectives. Those goals include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to American companies, granting preferential access to oil production, directing oil revenues toward the purchase of U.S. goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.
Rodríguez, who previously served as Maduro’s vice president, said Tuesday that her government and the Trump administration have established what she described as respectful and constructive lines of communication. In televised remarks, she said she is working with Trump and Rubio to develop a shared agenda.
Her government has already taken steps that appear to meet U.S. demands, including the release of political prisoners detained under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. A Venezuelan human rights organization reported that 266 political prisoners have been freed since Jan. 8. Trump publicly praised the move, calling it a powerful humanitarian gesture.
In another significant development, the State Department notified Congress this week that it intends to send additional diplomatic and support staff to Caracas in preparation for a possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy. The embassy has been closed since 2019. Fully restoring diplomatic relations would require the United States to reverse its recognition of Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate governing body.
Rubio is also scheduled to meet later Wednesday with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the State Department. Machado went into hiding after Maduro was declared the winner of the disputed 2024 presidential election, a result widely challenged by international observers.
She reemerged in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway and later traveled to Washington after Maduro’s removal. During a meeting with Trump, she presented him with her Nobel medal, a striking gesture given that the administration has largely sidelined her politically as it pursues its new strategy in Caracas.
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