Rubio says US ready to use force to ensure Venezuela’s cooperation

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is prepared to use force to ensure that Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez cooperates with the US, while hoping that self-interest will motivate her to advance key American objectives.

Rodríguez has committed to opening Venezuela’s energy sector to US companies, providing preferential access to oil production and using money from oil sales to buy American goods, Rubio said in remarks prepared for delivery at a hearing with lawmakers on Wednesday.

The hearing is Rubio’s first public appearance before Congress since the US raid that led to the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, on January 3.

“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio said in the statement for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It is our hope that this will not prove necessary.”

Maduro had been indicted by the US Justice Department on charges that included narco-terrorism, and Rubio praised the operation as a law enforcement effort accomplished without the loss of life among American forces. Maduro, now in a New York jail, has pleaded not guilty.

Democrats have called the raid an illegal act of war that circumvented Congress and now risks entangling the US in an extended commitment to rebuild Venezuela.

New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, criticized the Trump administration for leaving Rodríguez in power. She spent more than seven years as Maduro’s vice president, and Shaheen said that she hasn’t moved to reduce the influence of Iran, China or Russia.

“Her cooperation appears tactical and temporary, not a real shift in Venezuela’s alignment,” Shaheen said in her prepared remarks. “In the process, we’ve traded one dictator for another.”

President Donald Trump deployed a fleet of military vessels to the Caribbean Sea in the second half of last year and has blown up boats allegedly tied to drug cartels. Since mid-December, he has pivoted attention to Venezuela’s oil industry, accusing the socialist government of stealing US assets and touting a post-Maduro agreement to send as much as 50 million barrels of oil to the US.

The US has also interdicted at least seven tankers used to export Venezuelan oil, continuing to crack down on a global shadow fleet used to ship sanctioned petroleum.

Rodríguez said earlier this week that Venezuela “had enough” of US interference as the government faces growing discontent from public-sector groups and leftist parties over plans to overhaul the oil industry.

Trump announced hours after Maduro’s capture that the US planned to work with Rodríguez, who spent more than seven years as the deposed leader’s vice president, rather than popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Rubio plans to meet with Machado at the State Department later on Wednesday, after the Senate hearing.

Senator James Risch, the Idaho Republican who chairs the committee, said in his prepared remarks that Maduro’s capture has made America safer, and that ordering the mission to remove him was consistent with Trump’s authority under the Constitution.

“With Nicolas Maduro out of power, the United States has the opportunity to better protect America by bringing stability to Venezuela,” Risch said.

© 2026 Bloomberg

Follow Moneyweb’s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.