Venezuela ‘not Iraq or Afghanistan’, top US envoy says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the United States would not govern Venezuela on a day-to-day basis other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” in the country, after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the United States would govern Venezuela following the ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio’s remarks on TV talk shows appeared designed to ease concerns that assertive action to achieve regime change in Venezuela could drag the United States into another protracted foreign intervention or failed nation-building effort.
These contrasted with Trump’s broad but vague claims that the United States would “rule” the oil-rich country, at least temporarily; These comments suggested some type of governance structure in which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.
Rubio took a more nuanced approach on Sunday, saying the United States would continue to enforce the oil quarantine on tankers that had been sanctioned before Maduro was ousted from power early Saturday and use that pressure as a tool to make policy changes in Venezuela.
“And that’s the kind of control the president was pointing to when he said that,” Rubio said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “We are continuing the lockdown and expect to see changes not only in the management of the oil industry for the benefit of the public, but also in stopping drug trafficking.”
The blockade of sanctioned oil tankers (some of which have been seized by the United States) “exists, and it is a tremendous amount of pressure that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not only advance the national interests of the United States, which is No. 1, but also lead to a better future for the Venezuelan people,” he added.
Leaders in Venezuela have so far pushed back, at least publicly, by calling on the Trump administration to release Maduro.
Even before the operation that captured Maduro, experts were questioning the legality of some aspects of the administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuela, including the deadly bombing of boats accused of drug smuggling that some scholars say tested the limits of international law.
Trump’s promise to “manage” Venezuela, which he repeated more than half a dozen times at a news conference in Florida on Saturday, raised concerns among some Democrats.
It also irritated some segments of his own Republican coalition, including the “America First” base that opposes foreign intervention, and observers who evoke past nation-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rubio rejected such criticism, saying Trump’s intentions were misunderstood.
“The entire foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. he said. “This is not the Middle East. Our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”
