What does this all mean for Venezuelans?published at 15:59 GMT
15:59 GMT
Will Grant
Central America and Cuba Correspondent
The audience watching Rubio’s comments extends well beyond the confines of Capitol Hill.
Across the hemisphere, people have wanted to hear a comprehensive update on the Trump Administration’s idea of what comes next in Venezuela since the US military operation on 3 January.
Secretary Rubio has already indicated that he sees the interim government in Caracas, led by Delcy Rodriguez, as willing to work in exactly the ways which Washington wants.
That means the use of any proceeds from the country’s lucrative oil industry being entirely dictated by the US Treasury and spent on US-made products — foods, medicines, energy infrastructure — for use in the economically stricken nation.
It’s a plan that gives Washington the final say, something which might seem hard for many figures in the leftist government in Venezuela to stomach.
Yet Rubio remains confident the Trump Administration now has an ally in power in Caracas rather than an enemy.
The other main audience is in Havana. The Cuban Revolution has been, as Marco Rubio puts it, “propped up” by Venezuelan crude oil. In his written statement to the committee, he said interim-President Rodriguez has “pledged to end Venezuela’s oil lifeline to the Cuban regime.”
If that claim is accurate, it represents nothing less than an existential threat to the communist-run government in Cuba.
The island has lived under the Cuban Revolution for more than six-and-a-half decades. But it’s clear that Washington’s strategy in removing President Maduro from power is as much about forcing regime change in Cuba as it is about changing Venezuela itself.