Rubio Threatens Military Option as Venezuela Crisis Deepens 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declined to rule out further military action in Venezuela, while insisting that the Trump administration does not intend to use force as part of its current strategy.
Rubio Threatens
Mr Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday to defend Washington’s intervention in Venezuela, following the removal of Nicolás Maduro and the installation of interim president Delcy Rodríguez. The United States has since seized and begun selling Venezuelan oil.
When pressed by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on whether military force could be used to compel cooperation over oil exports, Mr Rubio said the president retained the right to act in self defence.
“The president does reserve the option in self defence to eliminate that threat,” he said, citing a hypothetical scenario involving an Iranian drone facility posing a danger to US forces in the region.
However, he acknowledged that military action would be counterproductive to Venezuela’s recovery and political transition. He told senators that the administration was neither preparing for nor expecting to take military action.
“I 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 at any time,” Mr Rubio said.
In prepared testimony released ahead of the hearing, Mr Rubio had warned that the US remained prepared to use force if other methods failed to secure cooperation.
Senator Murphy questioned whether the administration’s approach was likely to succeed, arguing that many figures from the previous government still held power.
“You are taking their oil at gunpoint,” he said. “You are holding and selling that oil.”
Mr Rubio declined to offer a specific timetable for democratic elections but said conditions would look markedly different within months.
“Three, four, or five months from now cannot look like what today looks like,” he said.
He confirmed that the administration had issued no bid licenses to two US oil trading firms to rapidly bring Venezuelan oil to market. He described the move as a short term solution driven by Venezuela’s lack of storage capacity.
The longer term plan, he said, would involve direct sales to refineries and expanded involvement by US companies, including Chevron.
Before the hearing, Mr Rubio defended President Trump’s decision to remove Mr Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the United States, continue military strikes on vessels suspected of smuggling narcotics, and seize sanctioned oil tankers.
“There is no war against Venezuela, and we did not occupy a country,” Mr Rubio said. “There are no US troops on the ground. This was an operation to aid law enforcement.”
Mr Maduro has pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges and has protested against his removal, declaring himself the country’s rightful president.
Democratic lawmakers have criticised the administration’s actions as exceeding presidential authority, while most Republicans have defended them as a legitimate use of executive power.
Legal challenges have also begun. Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed during a US strike on a suspected smuggling vessel have filed what is believed to be the first wrongful death lawsuit linked to the campaign. Since September, at least 126 people have been killed in more than three dozen strikes across the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.
Despite maintaining pressure on what the administration labels narco trafficking networks, US officials are also seeking to normalise relations with interim president Delcy Rodríguez.
Mr Rubio made clear that cooperation was expected.
“Rodríguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro,” he said. “It is our belief that her self interest aligns with advancing our key objectives.”
Those objectives include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to US companies, granting preferential access to production, using oil revenues to purchase US goods, and ending subsidised oil shipments to Cuba.
Ms Rodríguez, who previously served as Mr Maduro’s vice president, said on Tuesday that her government and the Trump administration had established respectful communication channels. She said she was working with Mr Trump and Mr Rubio to develop a shared agenda.
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During the hearing, Mr Rubio argued that removing the entire political structure at once could have caused widespread instability, including violence, looting, and mass displacement that would strain neighbouring countries.
Instead, he said, the administration was taking a pragmatic approach by working with those currently in power.
At the same time, senators raised concerns that US commercial interests were being prioritised over Venezuelan sovereignty.
Mr Rubio acknowledged that the opposition remained fragmented and said he wanted to see opposition figures return to Venezuela to rebuild civil society. He did not provide details on how or when elections might take place.
Later in the hearing, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen accused President Trump of prioritising oil over democratic reform, claiming the president referenced oil repeatedly in public remarks without mentioning human rights.
He asked Mr Rubio whether he had participated in conversations between the president and oil executives before Congress was informed of the operation.
Mr Rubio rejected the suggestion, calling it absurd, and said oil companies learned of the action at the same time as the public.
The session ended with a heated exchange between Mr Rubio and Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who questioned the administration’s claim that the US was not at war with Venezuela while invoking wartime legal authorities.
Mr Rubio responded that transnational gangs and drug trafficking groups had effectively waged war on the United States and required forceful confrontation.
“When it comes to narco trafficking gangs and criminal organisations,” he said, “there is no doubt we are confronting them in a war like setting.
