Rubio Set to Warn Venezuela on Goals   01/28 06:19

   Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans on Wednesday to warn that the Trump 
administration is ready to take new military action against Venezuela if the 
country's interim leadership strays from U.S. expectations.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans on Wednesday to warn 
that the Trump administration is ready to take new military action against 
Venezuela if the country's interim leadership strays from U.S. expectations.

   In prepared testimony for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee, Rubio says the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and that its 
interim leaders are cooperating, but he notes that the Trump administration 
would not rule out using additional force if needed following a raid to capture 
then-President Nicols Maduro early this month.

   "We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods 
fail," Rubio will say, according to his prepared 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."

   As he often is called to do, Rubio, a former Florida senator, will aim to 
sell one of President Donald Trump's more contentious priorities to former 
colleagues in Congress. With the Republican administration's foreign policy 
gyrating among the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East, Rubio also 
may be called to smooth alarm that has emerged in his own party lately about 
efforts like Trump's demand to annex Greenland.

   In the hearing focused on Venezuela, Rubio will defend Trump's decisions to 
remove Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S., continue deadly 
military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs and seize sanctioned 
tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, according to the prepared remarks. He will 
again reject allegations that Trump is violating the Constitution by taking 
such actions.

   "There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country," he 
will say, according to the prepared remarks. "There are no U.S. troops on the 
ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement."

   Maduro, who has pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a 
U.S. court, has defiantly declared himself "the president of my country" and 
protested his capture.

   Congress has not curtailed Trump on Venezuela

   Congressional Democrats have condemned Trump's moves as exceeding the 
authority of the executive branch, while most Republicans have supported them 
as a legitimate exercise of presidential power.

   Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the chairman of the committee, planned to 
open the hearing by lauding Trump and Rubio for making Americans safer with the 
military actions in and around Venezuela and saying they were legal.

   "These actions were limited in scope, short in duration, and done to protect 
U.S. interests and citizens," Risch will say, according to his prepared remarks 
released by the committee. "What President Trump has done in Venezuela is the 
definition of the president's Article II constitutional authorities as 
commander-in-chief."

   New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, was 
taking the opposite tack, questioning whether the operation to remove Maduro 
was worth it considering most of his former top aides and lieutenants are still 
running the country.

   "The U.S. naval blockade around Venezuela and the raid have already cost 
American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars ... and yet the Maduro 
regime is still in power," she plans to say, according to her prepared opening 
statement.

   The House narrowly defeated a war powers act resolution that would have 
directed Trump to remove U.S. troops from Venezuela. As Rubio will argue, the 
administration says there are no U.S. troops on the ground in the South 
American nation despite a large military buildup in the region.

   Democrats had argued that the resolution was necessary after the U.S. raid 
to capture Maduro and because Trump has stated plans to control the country's 
oil industry for years to come.

   The pushback has begun in the courts, too, as the families of two 
Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike filed what 
is thought to be the first wrongful-death case arising from the campaign. Three 
dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean have 
killed at least 126 people since September.

   The US takes steps to normalize ties while still issuing warnings

   While keeping pressure on those the Trump administration dubs 
"narcotraffickers" without providing evidence, U.S. officials also are working 
to normalize ties with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodrguez. 
Nonetheless, Rubio will make clear in his testimony that she has little choice 
but to comply with Trump's demands.

   "Rodrguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her 
own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives," Rubio will say, 
noting that they 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.

   Rodrguez, who previously served as Maduro's vice president, on Tuesday said 
her government and the Trump administration "have established respectful and 
courteous channels of communication." During televised remarks, Rodrguez said 
she is working with Trump and Rubio to set "a working agenda."

   So far, she has appeared to acquiesce to Trump's demands and to release 
prisoners jailed by the government under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo 
Chvez. On Monday, the head of a Venezuelan human rights group said 266 
political prisoners had been freed since Jan. 8.

   Trump had praised the releases, saying on social media that he would "like 
to thank the leadership of Venezuela for agreeing to this powerful humanitarian 
gesture!"

   In a key step to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two 
countries, the State Department notified Congress just this week that it 
intends to begin sending additional diplomatic and support personnel to Caracas 
to prepare for the possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy there.

   It was the first formal notice of the administration's intent to reopen the 
embassy, which shuttered in 2019. Fully normalizing ties, however, would 
require the U.S. to revoke its decision recognizing the Venezuelan parliament 
elected in 2015 as the country's legitimate government.

   Rubio also planned to meet Venezuelan opposition leader Mara Corina Machado 
later Wednesday at the State Department.

   Machado went into hiding after Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 
presidential election despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. She 
reemerged in December to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. After Maduro 
was ousted, she traveled to Washington. In a meeting with Trump, she presented 
him with her Peace Prize medal, an extraordinary gesture given that Trump has 
effectively sidelined her.