{"id":395449,"date":"2026-01-28T18:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395449\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:37:07","slug":"rubio-declines-to-rule-out-further-us-military-action-in-venezuela-at-senate-hearing-marco-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395449\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio declines to rule out further US military action in Venezuela at Senate hearing | Marco Rubio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marco Rubio has declined to rule out future US military action in Venezuela but insisted the Trump administration<\/a> did not intend to take such steps, as he faced questions from lawmakers over Washington\u2019s unprecedented intervention.<\/p>\n

The US secretary of state appeared before the Senate foreign relations committee on Wednesday to defend the removal of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, which has left Venezuela under the control of interim president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez while the US seizes and sells its oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president does reserve the option in self defense to eliminate that threat,\u201d Rubio said when pressed by Connecticut senator Chris Murphy on whether the administration would use force to compel cooperation on oil sales.<\/p>\n

Rubio cited a hypothetical scenario of an Iranian drone factory threatening US forces in the region, but acknowledged that \u201cmilitary action is not good for recovery and transition\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rubio had earlier warned in prepared testimony that the US remains \u201cprepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail\u201d, though he told senators Wednesday: \u201cI can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to have to take any military action in Venezuela<\/a> at any time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Murphy questioned whether the Trump administration\u2019s approach was \u201cdestined for failure,\u201d given that Maduro\u2019s former aides remain in control<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are taking their oil at gunpoint. You are holding and selling that oil,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Rubio refused to commit to a specific timeline for democratic transition but insisted that conditions would improve significantly within months. \u201cThree or four or five months from now cannot look like what today looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rubio acknowledged the administration gave no-bid licenses to two US oil trading companies to quickly move Venezuelan oil to market. He characterized this as a \u201cshort-term fix\u201d necessitated by Venezuela running out of storage capacity, saying the \u201clong-term plan\u201d involves direct sales to refineries and expanded operations by companies like Chevron.<\/p>\n

Before the hearing, Rubio defended Trump\u2019s decisions to remove Maduro to face drug-trafficking charges in the US, continue deadly military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs, and seize sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, according to the prepared remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country,\u201d he said in prepared remarks. \u201cThere are no US troops on the ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maduro, who has pleaded not guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges in a US court<\/a>, has defiantly declared himself \u201cthe president of my country\u201d and protested against his capture.<\/p>\n

Congressional Democrats have condemned Trump\u2019s moves as exceeding the authority of the executive branch, while most Republicans have supported them as a legitimate exercise of presidential power.<\/p>\n

The pushback has begun in the courts, too, as the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike filed what is thought to be the first wrongful-death case arising from the campaign.<\/a> Three dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean have killed at least 126 people since September.<\/p>\n

While keeping pressure on those the Trump administration dubs \u201cnarcotraffickers\u201d without providing evidence, US officials also are working to normalize ties with Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. Nonetheless, Rubio will make clear in his testimony that she has little choice but to comply with Trump\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cRodr\u00edguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives,\u201d Rubio said , noting that they include opening Venezuela\u2019s energy sector to US companies, providing preferential access to production, using oil revenue to purchase US goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez, who previously served as Maduro\u2019s vice-president, on Tuesday said her government and the Trump administration \u201chave established respectful and courteous channels of communication\u201d. During televised remarks, Rodr\u00edguez said she was working with Trump and Rubio to set \u201ca working agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marco Rubio has declined to rule out future US military action in Venezuela but insisted the Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-395449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}