Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is prepared to use force to secure cooperation from Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, while signaling that the United States expects compliance through political and economic leverage before taking further action.
In prepared remarks for his first congressional appearance since the Jan. 3 U.S. operation in Caracas that captured Nicolás Maduro, Rubio said Rodríguez has agreed to open Venezuela’s energy sector to U.S. companies, grant preferential access to production, and direct oil revenue toward purchasing American goods.
“We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,” Rubio said in the statement for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “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.”
Rubio is scheduled to meet with María Corina Machado at the State Department following the hearing.
