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By Jesus Mesa
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday outlined the Trump administration’s conditions for engaging with Venezuela’s new leadership following the U.S.-led capture of Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. would maintain maximum pressure until drug trafficking, foreign influence and oil sector corruption are eliminated.
Speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation and NBC News' Meet the Press, Rubio said the U.S. would continue enforcing a naval “oil quarantine” and warned that American leverage—military, legal and economic—would remain in place until its demands are met.
“There’s a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments…we go get a court order, we will seize it,” Rubio said on Face the Nation. “That’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela.”
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Meanwhile, Venezuela's Supreme Court Constitutional Chamber ordered Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to assume the role of acting president on Saturday following the Maduro's detention.
Why It Matters
Deposed Venezuelan leader Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, arrived in New York City on Saturday evening to face criminal charges after being captured in a nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would allow the U.S. to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves for sale to other nations.
During a news conference on Saturday, Rubio and Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast the military raid that captured the two as an action carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Maduro, his wife, and his son have been formally indicted in the Southern District of New York, including on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. Maduro had previously been indicted in March 2020 on "narco-terrorism" conspiracy charges in the same district, and in August 2025, the U.S. doubled its bounty to $50 million for information leading to his arrest. Maduro has denied any wrongdoing.
What To Know
Rubio listed three central U.S. demands—dismantling the drug trafficking networks operating through Venezuela, removing Hezbollah, Iranian and other foreign actors from the country, and rebuilding the oil sector with outside investment—under conditions that ensure proceeds go to the Venezuelan population, not regime elites.
“What we are focused on right now is all of the problems we had when Maduro was there,” Rubio said on Meet the Press. “We are going to give people an opportunity to address those challenges…until they address it, they will continue to face this oil quarantine. They will continue to face pressure from the United States."
The secretary of state continued: "We will continue to target drug boats if they try to run towards the United States. We will continue to seize the boats that are sanctioned with court orders. We will continue to do that and potentially other things until the things we need to see addressed are addressed."
Rubio said that while the Trump administration is in contact with Rodríguez—the U.S. has not made guarantees about future recognition or leadership arrangements. “We're going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do,” he said on Face the Nation.
Rubio emphasized that the military action was not a declaration of war but a “law enforcement function” targeting an indicted drug trafficker. “There’s not a war,” he told Meet the Press. “We are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela.”
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‘These Things Take Time’
The question of who leads Venezuela next drew less clarity. Rubio deflected repeated questions about María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition figure widely seen as having won, alongside Edmundo González in the 2024 election, praising her as “fantastic” but declining to discuss her role. “We are dealing with the immediate reality,” Rubio said on NBC News, noting the opposition's diminished presence inside the country.
Machado heads the Vente Venezuela party and overwhelmingly won a 2023 presidential primary, but the Supreme Tribunal of Justice blocked her from running for president directly.
Rodríguez was granted full executive powers by Venezuela’s Supreme Court, keeping the ruling apparatus in place despite the U.S.-led operation to remove Maduro. Rubio did not confirm whether Rodríguez had agreed to U.S. demands but said, “We’re going to find out…and we are going to work to continue to see that happen.”
Other senior regime officials, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, remain in power. Both have been indicted by the U.S. and have multi-million-dollar bounties on their heads. Rubio defended the decision not to apprehend them. “We got the top priority,” he said.
Asked whether elections would be scheduled within 30 days, Rubio said that “these things take time,” adding, “We want to see Venezuela transition to be a place completely different than what it looks like today. But obviously, we don't have the expectation that's going to happen in the next 15 hours."
Rubio repeatedly returned to the U.S. priorities: blocking adversaries, cutting off criminal networks, and stabilizing oil. “Ultimately, above everything else, we care about elections, we care about democracy,” he said on Meet the Press. “But the number one thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States. That's what we're going to focus first and foremost here. And that's what these changes we need to see made are about.”
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump during an interview with Fox & Friends on Saturday: “But we can’t take a chance on after having done this incredible thing last night of letting somebody else take over, where we have to do it again. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us. There’s nobody that has the capability that we have. You know, when I watch that war in Russia going on and on and on and everybody dying. It’s like, it’s primitive. It’s primitive. It’s horrible. It’s really horrible.”
Ronal Rodriguez, Venezuelan researcher and spokesperson for the Venezuela Observatory at Universidad del Rosario, told Newsweek: “The risk for the United States is assuming it can manage Chavismo as a transitional partner. That regime has survived multiple U.S. administrations by adapting its discourse, and any pact framed around oil risks guaranteeing continuity—not a democratic break.”
Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, told Newsweek: “Maduro’s allies know exactly what Trump wants most: oil access, migrant returns and symbolic moves against crime. They can give him enough of that while keeping most of the system intact.”
What Happens Next
No U.S. troops are currently on the ground in Venezuela, Rubio said, but echoed Trump in declining to rule out future deployments. “The president…does not feel like he is going to publicly rule out options that are available for the United States,” Rubio said.
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