It was not an invasion, not illegal and not about oil: Marco Rubio on capture of Venezuela’s Maduro

AUSTIN - The Trump administration launched a forceful defence of its Venezuela operations a day after facing worldwide condemnation for whisking away the country’s President Nicolas Maduro to face a trial on “narco-terrorism” charges in New York.

The US actions were not illegal and not a grab for Venezuela’s oil reserves, Secretary of State Marcos Rubio said in a series of appearances on Sunday TV talk shows on Jan 4 as he fielded questions about whether the US had violated international law.

He described the US operations as a war against drug trafficking organisations. “It’s not a war against Venezuela,” he said.

The legality of the operation, he asserted, came from a US court which had authorised the arrest of Maduro, who is scheduled to make his first appearance in a Manhattan federal court on Jan 5.

Under international law, the US strikes on Caracas that preceded the capture of Maduro would be considered illegal.

The United Nations Charter forbids the use of force by one nation against another unless for self-defence against an imminent threat. 

Amid criticism that the White House had kept Congress in the dark about the operation, Mr Rubio said congressional approval was not necessary for a limited, targeted law enforcement operation.  

“We didn’t occupy a country. This was an arrest operation, a law enforcement operation. He was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights, and removed from the country,” he added, referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr Rubio said the needs of the operation were specific, describing it as a “trigger-based” operation.

“All kinds of conditions had to be in place. The weather had to be right. He had to be staying in a certain spot. Everything had to be in place in order for that to happen,” he said.

“You can’t congressionally notify something like this... it will leak and it’s an exigent circumstance... you don’t even know if you’re going to be able to do it.”

Oil reserves not the endgame

The Secretary of State was at his most forceful while insisting that the endgame was not Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the world’s largest at 300 billion barrels.

We don’t need Venezuela’s oil, Mr Rubio said.

“We have plenty of oil in the US. What we’re not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the US,” he added.

Mr Rubio also seemed to offer a spirited defence of the “sphere of influence” idea by questioning Venezuela’s oil trade with its allies, China and Russia.

“Why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even on this continent. 

“This is where we live, and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States. It’s as simple as that.”

China buys almost 90 per cent of Venezuela’s oil, while Iran and Russia are not significant purchasers.

Mr Rubio described the current state of the Venezuelan oil industry as badly run “pirate operations” functioning with “decrepit equipment” because of corruption in Venezuela.

“People literally steal the oil from the ground... A handful of cronies benefit from this. They sell the oil at a discount on global markets – 40 cents on the dollar, 50 cents on the dollar – but all that money goes to them.”

Asked if the US oil companies had shown interest in entering Venezuela, he was positive but non-committal.

“I haven’t spoken to US oil companies in the last few days but we’re pretty certain that there will be dramatic interest from Western companies. Non-Russian, non-Chinese companies will be very interested,” he said.

Post-Maduro, the US is grappling with tricky questions about how the country transitions back to normality.

In controversial comments soon after Maduro was deposed, Mr Trump said the US would “run” the country. A day later, he said elections should take place only after the country is stabilised.

“We should run the country with law and order. We should run the country where we can take advantage of the economics of what they have – which is valuable oil and valuable other things,” he told the New York Post in an interview on Jan 4.

He also said he was sceptical whether opposition figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, had the public support needed to lead the country.

Will VP Delcy Rodriguez cooperate?

It is also unclear if Maduro’s vice-president and now his successor, Ms Delcy Rodriguez, is cooperating with the US or mobilising supporters for resistance.

In a news conference on Jan 3 after the attack, Mr Trump said Ms Rodríguez had indicated she was willing to work with the US. That claim rang hollow only a few hours later, when Maduro’s successor called out the US action.

In a national broadcast made soon after Mr Trump’s comments, she called the US actions “barbaric” and demanded Maduro’s return.

Reacting to the apparently hostile stance, Mr Trump, with characteristic belligerence, said she would “pay” if she did not comply with US wishes. 

“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” he said in a Jan 4 interview to The Atlantic magazine.

In reply to a question, Mr Rubio dismissed Ms Rodriguez’s words as rhetoric.

“There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries, especially 15 hours or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York,” he said.

He suggested that she would be judged by “outcomes”, such as the cessation of drug trafficking and migration along with action against narco-terrorist organisations operating in the country.

“These are the things we want addressed,” he said.

Deflecting questions on whether he was “running Venezuela”, as tasked by Mr Trump, Mr Rubio said he was “running policy” intended to produce the changes desired by the US.

Pressed for a more detailed road map for Venezuela’s transition to normality, including dates for an election, Mr Rubio grew impatient.

“There has to be a little realism here, okay?” he snapped. 

“They’ve had this regime in place for 15 or 16 years. And everyone’s asking why, 24 hours after Nicolas Maduro was arrested, there isn’t an election scheduled for tomorrow. That’s absurd.”

What comes next?

With the US emphasis on dominating the Western Hemisphere, the first concrete expression of its National Security Strategy released in December 2025, questions abound about what comes next. 

Asked about Cuba, which has long been hostile to the US, Mr Rubio was foreboding.

“If I were Cuba,” said Mr Rubio, whose parents migrated from the country, “I would be worried.”

Mr Trump was more direct, in response to questions from the media. “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall.”

The Cuban government said 32 Cuban officers were killed during the Maduro operation, in the first official death count it provided of the US strikes in the South American nation. The officers were in the country for an unspecified mission at the request of Venezuela, the government said.

There are other questions swirling about US designs on pristine lands. 

Right-wing podcaster Katie Miller, the wife of Mr Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, created a diplomatic storm when she posted on social media platform X a map of Greenland draped in the stars and stripes. The caption on the message, posted hours after Maduro’s capture, said: “SOON.”

Greenland, which possesses vast, untapped critical rare earth minerals and is on key Arctic shipping routes, is part of Denmark. 

Mr Trump first floated the idea of purchasing the territory during his first term in 2019. In January 2025, he refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to gain control over it.

On Jan 4, he doubled down on his claim, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to urge him to stop making threats.

“It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing to take over Greenland. The US has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish kingdom,” Ms Frederiksen said.

But Mr Trump appeared to pay no heed, restating it twice on the same day.

“We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place… and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he told reporters on the presidential plane ride back from his vacation home in Florida to the White House.

Dr Joseph Ledford, a US foreign policy expert at the Hoover Institution, said a military intervention in Greenland was not on the cards. 

“But Trump is likely to keep pushing for some political resolution that increases America’s presence,” he said.