An ‘impossible situation’ that Venezuela had to find a solution to, Rubio said of Maduro’s capture.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a US Senate committee on Wednesday that Venezuela’s new leaders are moving toward closer ties with Washington without the need for further US military action, facing questions from many of his former colleagues in public for the first time.

Since the Jan. 3 U.S. raid to arrest then-President Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to work with Maduro ally Delsy Rodriguez, who was sworn in as interim president after his arrest. Trump has warned of further military action if his administration does not comply with US demands.

Rubio – who was a senator from Florida for 14 years and also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – said that Trump is not ruling out any options, but we are not sitting, or thinking or expecting, to take any military action in Venezuela, which shows the administration’s satisfaction with Rodriguez.

He said his relationship with Venezuelan leaders was “very respectful and productive.”

The U.S. has set up a short-term sale of Venezuelan oil but aims to facilitate a transition to a “friendly, stable, prosperous Venezuela” that will eventually elect its leaders in free and fair elections, Rubio said, without giving a timeline for when that might happen.

Rubio praised opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corna Machado, but dismissed questions about why Trump fired Venezuelans, saying they lack popular support, instead promising elections at some point.

He told the committee that Maduro should be ousted because Venezuela is a military base for America’s enemies, including China, Russia and Iran, and his alleged collaboration with drug traffickers is harming the region and the United States.

“It was an impossible situation and it needed to be addressed,” Rubio said.

‘Taking their oil with guns’

Several members of Congress, some Republicans and some Democrats, have expressed dismay at Trump officials’ lack of communication about major actions, including the capture of Maduro and the elimination of several congressionally-funded foreign aid programs.

However, efforts by the Senate to pass a resolution barring Trump from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval have failed.

“The scope of the project they’re doing in Venezuela is unprecedented,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “You’re taking their oil at gunpoint. You’re taking that oil and selling it, keeping the receipts in an offshore Middle Eastern account. You’re deciding how and for what purpose the money is spent in a country of 30 million people.”

“I think a lot of us believe that’s set up for failure.”

See | Several challenges in exporting Venezuelan oil:

Can Trump really get Venezuela’s oil flowing again? | About that

The Trump administration is taking control of Venezuela’s oil industry following the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. Andrew Chang examines the significant obstacles facing the United States, President Donald Trump’s claims of ‘stolen’ oil, and whether the operation is worth the trouble.

Official signs of the Trump administration’s aggressive stance toward Venezuela began last summer when the FBI doubled the reward for Maduro’s capture. Then in September, the US launched a series of controversial, deadly attacks on boats allegedly linked to the Maduro administration.

As of Tuesday, the death toll from those attacks had risen to 126, including 10 who died after searches were called off, a U.S. defense official told Reuters.

The administration has framed the offensive, directed by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as a war against drug cartels it claims are armed groups. He said the attack violated international laws known as the laws of war, or the law of arms.

But the administration’s actions have drawn scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans in Congress, who have condemned the violence against drug dealers and human rights activists. The attack on two men who were stuck on a boat after surviving the first strike on September 2nd received particular attention.

Legal experts previously said drug traffickers did not fit the accepted international definition of an armed group, and drug trade experts pointed to Venezuela as a transit point for cocaine — not fentanyl, which has accounted for the majority of drug-related deaths in the U.S. over the past decade.

On October 14, a US missile attack on a suspected drug boat killed two members of a Trinidadian family. Filed a wrongful death lawsuit On Tuesday, the pair claimed they were laborers killed in a “virtually illegal” military operation targeting civilian vessels in Venezuela.

Democrats apologized to the former president of Honduras

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen questioned his sincere concern about drug traffickers. Trump has pardoned the former president of HondurasThey were arrested in the US on charges of drug trafficking.

Rubio and some Republicans on the panel hoped the effectiveness of Maduro’s tenure would give other US socialists pause. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said he hopes “regime change” will eventually come there, saying the United States plans to bring about that change.

See | The agent explains why Venezuela is named as a transit point:

A former Colombian federal anti-narcotics agent, the Venezuelan military is involved in the cocaine trade.

A former Colombian federal police anti-narcotics agent said he discovered the term ‘Sun Cartel’ through investigations by telephone and conversations with confidential informants. He says the Venezuelan regime has deep ties to the drug trade. CBC News is not releasing the agent’s identity because it is not authorized to release internal police details.

While the session gave Rubio a chance to question him adequately on the Venezuela operations for the first time on the panel, other topics also came up.

Van Hollen suggested that the current US government may be “the most corrupt administration in history”. Referring to the New York Times report last week In the year He has accused Trump of receiving hundreds of millions of dollars since he took office in 2025, including dealings with foreign individuals and entities.

Many Democrats have been dismayed by the White House’s threat to annex Greenland, as well as by Trump’s involvement with other NATO members, seemingly oblivious to the deaths of allied service members since the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States.

Rubio said the U.S. now has a process in place on Greenland and that technical level meetings will be held with Greenlandic and Danish officials on the matter. He said he thought this process would bring “good results” for everyone.