Rubio set to warn of future military action if Venezuela's new leaders
stray from US goals
[January 28, 2026]
By MATTHEW LEE
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 former President Nicolás 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 administration’s foreign policy
gyrating between 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.”
Congress has not curtailed Trump on Venezuela
Congressional Democrats have condemned Trump's moves as exceeding the
authority of the executive branch, while most — but not all —
Republicans have supported them as a legitimate exercise of presidential
power.
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 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 who the Trump administration dubs
“narcotraffickers” without providing evidence, U.S. officials also are
working to normalize ties with Venezuelan acting President Delcy
Rodríguez. Nonetheless, Rubio will make clear in his testimony that she
has little choice but to comply with Trump's demands.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters while meeting
with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at the State
Department in Washington, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
"Rodríguez 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.
Rodríguez, 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, Rodríguez 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, the late Hugo Chávez. 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 María 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 came 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.
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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela,
contributed to this report.
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