By Tyler Pager and Anatoly Kurmanaev, The New York Times, July 11, 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio with President Trump at the White House in March.
Photo: Eric Lee for The New York Times
President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office earlier this year with Secretary of State Marco Rubio when an idea came to him.
Maybe he should dispatch Mr. Rubio permanently to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where U.S. commandos had carried out the proudest foreign policy achievement of Mr. Trump’s second term: the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president.
Mr. Rubio could be the next leader
of Venezuela, Mr. Trump suggested. And while the president’s aides say he was
joking — and that he frequently teases Mr. Rubio about an overseas assignment —
the fact is that Mr. Rubio does not need to move to Caracas.
He already runs Venezuela from
Washington.
In the six months since U.S. forces
blew open Mr. Maduro’s bedroom door and snatched him in the dead of night, Mr.
Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, holding sway over a
sovereign nation in a way that no American official has since L. Paul Bremer
III arrived in Baghdad in 2003 to run U.S.-occupied Iraq.
Mr. Rubio now effectively controls
Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its
government, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials and people
close to both governments in Washington and Caracas, who provided details about
his involvement in steering the country’s policies. Many spoke on condition of
anonymity to describe private interactions and internal discussions.
While he has not visited Venezuela
in person since the U.S. took over, the Secretary of State is deeply involved
in the country’s day-to-day operations, keeping in close contact with Delcy
Rodríguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s vice president and now leads her country on an
acting basis, with the imprimatur of the United States. The two exchange
messages in Spanish on WhatsApp, trading gossip, birthday greetings, and
selfies.
Despite the banter, the
relationship between Mr. Rubio and Ms. Rodríguez is far from a partnership. It
is a manifestation of Trump-era American power, in which the winner takes all
regardless of sovereignty and international law.
The Venezuelan government did not
respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration did not address
detailed questions about Mr. Rubio’s authority in Venezuela. Mr. Rubio has
downplayed his role, and largely avoids discussing his work. He declined
multiple requests for an interview.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department
spokesman, said in a statement that “with renewed cooperation and sound
economic stewardship, Venezuela can re-emerge as a stable, prosperous partner
whose citizens benefit from its vast natural wealth and strengthened ties with
the United States.”
The direct control over Venezuela’s
public revenues, in particular, distinguishes Washington’s influence there from
most other countries beholden to its military and financial might.
The U.S. Treasury receives the
revenue from most of Venezuela’s exports, then disburses it gradually to
Venezuela through the country’s private banks, a relationship akin to parents
handing out allowances to children. Mr. Rubio and his team set the conditions
on what that money can be spent on, and by whom.
This system has allowed Mr. Rubio
to stop Venezuela’s most egregious corruption schemes. And it brings some
benefits to the Venezuelan government, which uses the effective protection of
the U.S. Treasury to receive revenues without being hounded by the numerous
creditors seeking repayment of billions in unpaid debt.
But the arrangement has also given
Mr. Rubio immense leverage over Ms. Rodríguez, who depends on the money to pay
workers and prop up the national currency.
He also oversees the application of
U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, deciding who gets to do business in the country
and how. He has worked to reshape the oil sector and boosted the access of U.S.
companies. For her part, Ms. Rodríguez runs important government appointments
by him, such as the minister of defense.
Since two earthquakes struck
Venezuela last month, Mr. Rubio has sought to bolster the country’s interim
government. The United States has sent 900 military personnel to Venezuela,
committed nearly $400 million in aid and delivered crates of cash to the Venezuelan
government.
The earthquakes have complicated
Mr. Rubio’s stated mission to return Venezuela to democracy (“It’s a setback in
that regard,” Mr. Rubio acknowledged last month). But the country’s ability to
recover is critical to Mr. Trump’s ultimate goal: securing Venezuelan oil for
U.S. interests.
The arrangement is deeply unusual,
unfolding 80 years after the United States relinquished its last sizable formal
colony, the Philippines.
But Mr. Trump has made clear he
wants to return to an era of American expansionism, musing about taking control
of Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.
He has found the most success in
Venezuela. But there are risks.
Mr. Trump’s critics accuse the
United States of siphoning Venezuela’s resources and propping up an
authoritarian government by leaving Mr. Maduro’s henchmen largely in place. The
arrangement also entangles the United States in the fortunes of a deeply unpopular,
unelected regime facing increasingly restless clamor for political change.
“Secretary Rubio said that we are
not at war with Venezuela,” Representative Sean Casten, Democrat of Illinois,
said to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a congressional hearing in
February. What authority, Mr. Casten asked, did the United States have to
control Venezuelan assets?
Mr. Bessent told Mr. Casten that he
would get back to him.
Mr. Rubio’s hard-nosed realpolitik
in Venezuela is a sharp departure for a man who spent his career fashioning
himself as a champion for democracy in Latin America. He has said his goal is
an eventual democratic transition.
The outcome of the Venezuela foray
could shape Mr. Rubio’s political future as Mr. Trump considers his successor.
In the early hours of Jan. 3,
shortly after Mr. Maduro was captured, Mr. Rubio reached Ms. Rodríguez by
phone. Speaking in Spanish, Mr. Rubio told her that she had a choice between
working with the United States or witnessing a broader attack targeting Venezuela’s
infrastructure, military bases and senior officials.
After some negotiation, Ms.
Rodríguez agreed.
She told Mr. Rubio that “she’s
essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great
again,” according to Mr. Trump. The president said the United States would “run
the country” until there was a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of
power.
Days later, Mr. Trump told The New
York Times in an interview that he expected the United States to run Venezuela
for years.
At the center of the fulcrum is Mr.
Rubio, dubbed by other officials as “viceroy,” the title given to the powerful
governors who ruled the Spanish empire until Venezuela and most of its other
provinces rebelled and won independence in the early 19th century.
As Ms. Rodríguez started to set up
her government, Mr. Rubio weighed in on key personnel decisions, and encouraged
her to purge Mr. Maduro’s family and business partners. She followed through.
Most Venezuelans expressed relief
at Mr. Maduro’s downfall only to watch in disbelief as the Trump administration
struck an alliance with most of his chief enforcers. Inflation has fallen but
remains the world’s highest, and the country’s currency keeps losing value.
Millions are clamoring for new elections, putting pressure on Mr. Rubio to move
beyond economic deals and bring political change. Investors are nervous about
putting capital into a system that could crumble at any moment.
Before the earthquakes, Ms.
Rodríguez had been asking Mr. Rubio for more financial autonomy and the
scrapping of economic sanctions, to reduce the domestic pressure on her
government.
Mr. Rubio has been sympathetic to
her arguments, but the U.S. government has not released control.
Mr. Rubio’s work with Ms. Rodríguez
has provoked grumbling among some career U.S. diplomats, Venezuelan Americans
and Mr. Trump’s allies, who bristle at the idea that Mr. Maduro’s chief
lieutenant is in power.
Mr.
Rubio and other officials have dismissed those concerns, pointing to how Ms.
Rodríguez has followed nearly every order the administration has made,
especially those related to the country’s finances. Venezuela sells much of its
oil through two oil trading companies, Trafigura and Vitol, in an arrangement set up by the Trump administration.
Mr. Rubio has
largely eclipsed Chris Wright, the energy secretary, in opening up Venezuela’s
oil industry to foreign investment, the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s vision for
the country. He has prioritized the arrival of new American companies at the
expense of European oil producers who were already working in the country.
Ben
Dietderich, a spokesman for Mr. Wright, said the secretary has worked closely
with Mr. Rubio, and has spoken regularly with energy industry leaders and Ms.
Rodríguez.
Washington’s
grip on Venezuela’s economy extends beyond the oil revenues. Mr. Rubio’s team
drafts the licenses that provide companies who want to do business in Venezuela
with exemptions from sanctions. Mr. Rubio has warned Ms. Rodríguez’s government
to abstain from business with U.S. adversaries. Following Mr. Maduro’s
downfall, for example, Venezuela’s state oil company has quietly taken over the
operations of the oil projects that it co-owns with Russia’s state-run Rosneft.
Rosneft did not respond to request for comment.
The Trump administration has
also successfully pressured Ms. Rodríguez to turn over Venezuelans who have
crossed the Justice Department. At the behest of the United States, Ms.
Rodríguez’s government in February detained Alex Saab, the billionaire friend and business
partner of Mr. Maduro, and approved his extradition to the United States, after
stripping him of his Venezuelan passport.
Some officials
believe the Justice Department wants to use Mr. Saab to strengthen the case
against Mr. Maduro, who has been charged with various drug trafficking crimes.
And in June,
the Rodríguez government helped the United States kill a criminal boss with
longstanding ties to Venezuelan officials, according to several people familiar
with the operation.
U.S. forces used
the intelligence provided by Ms. Rodríguez’s officials to kill Niño Guerrero,
one of the leaders of the gang Tren de Aragua, in a missile strike in a remote
area of southern Venezuela. It was the first military collaboration between the
two countries in decades. The Venezuelan government later recovered the gang
leader’s body and passed it to the United States.
The Trump administration has accused Tren de Aragua of working with Mr. Maduro to flood the United States with drugs and illegal migrants, even though U.S. intelligence agencies last year assessed that Mr. Maduro did not control the gang.
When the Fox News
anchor Bret Baier contacted Ms. Rodríguez about participating in an interview,
she told him that Mr. Trump would have to approve. Mr. Trump loved that Ms.
Rodríguez was deferring to him, and has repeatedly recounted the story to
others when they ask about her, according to multiple people familiar with his
comments.
When the United
States attacked Iran, Yvan Gil, Venezuela’s foreign minister, issued a soft condemnation of the aggression
against Venezuela’s longtime ally.
The Trump
administration communicated to Ms. Rodríguez that the post should be taken
down, and warned her not to publicly support its adversaries again. Mr. Gil deleted the post hours after posting it.
In effect, it was
an admission that Venezuela no longer set its foreign policy.
Mr. Gil did not
respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Rubio was
asleep in Bahrain last month when he was awakened by a call from the White
House Situation Room. Two massive earthquakes had hit Venezuela, and early
images were grim. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, and scores of people
were missing.
Shortly after, Mr.
Rubio spoke to Ms. Rodríguez, promising the full assistance of the United
States. American rescue teams were on the ground two days later. Mr. Rubio has
described the administration’s plans for Venezuela in three phases: recover the
economy, stabilize the country and transition it to democracy.
Before the
earthquakes, U.S. officials said they were in the second phase, working to open
up Venezuela to international investment. To further that goal, senior Trump
administration officials have traveled to Venezuela to meet their counterparts
and strike new energy and mining deals.
The resulting announcements, however, have mostly been optimistic outlines of potential investments.
In March, Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, visited
Venezuela and met with Ms. Rodríguez at the Presidential Palace. During the
visit, Mr. Rubio texted her to ask how the meeting was going. Ms. Rodríguez
said it was going well, and sent a selfie with Mr. Burgum.
But the meeting was overshadowed by damaging news. Reuters reported that
day that the Justice Department was quietly building a legal case against Ms.
Rodríguez.
Ms. Rodríguez’s administration was shocked, and sought
clarification from the White House. To allay Ms. Rodríguez’s concerns, Todd
Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, called the report “completely FALSE.”
But the Venezuelan government sought
further assurances. So the next day Mr. Rubio texted Mr. Rodríguez the link to
a social media post from the U.S. president.
Image
“Delcy
Rodríguez, who is the President of Venezuela, is doing a great job, and working
with U.S. Representatives very well,” Mr. Trump wrote. Ms. Rodríguez was pleased, and wanted
to thank Mr. Trump with a post of her own. But first, she shared the draft with
Mr. Rubio. She posted it after receiving his approval.
Before Mr.
Maduro’s capture, U.S. prosecutors had been looking into many Venezuelan
officials, including Ms. Rodríguez, though it is unclear if those efforts have
revealed evidence of crimes. The Associated Press reported in May that the Trump administration told
prosecutors to stop investigating Ms. Rodríguez.
The success of the
efforts to bring stability to Venezuela, the second phase of Mr. Rubio’s plan,
largely hinges on foreign investment. But investors are cautious. The oil
sector is degraded and corrupt, and Ms. Rodríguez’s grip on power in uncertain.
The earthquakes have delayed the negotiations for new oil contracts.
Mr. Trump appears
unworried. He has repeatedly suggested that Venezuela could become the 51st
state.
Who may lead
the country on a more permanent basis is still deeply uncertain. María Corina
Machado, the exiled opposition leader, remains the country’s most popular
politician. But she has sworn enemies among Venezuela’s security and military
officials, leading Mr. Rubio to bypass her and settle on Ms. Rodríguez as the
country’s handpicked leader.
Once a staunch
supporter of Ms. Machado, Mr. Rubio has distanced himself from her in recent
months. The cooling relationship between the Trump administration and Ms.
Machado became an open breach after the earthquakes. U.S. officials
have refused to help her return to Venezuela out of fear of stoking unrest.
The time frame for
the final phase of Mr. Rubio’s Venezuela plan, the free elections, remains
undefined. When The Times asked Ms. Rodríguez in May when she would hold
elections, she said, “I don’t know. Sometime.”
Political analysts
say that Ms. Rodríguez may be trying to run out the clock on the Trump
presidency, hoping that the pressure to hold the vote would fade under his
successor.
For now, the
question of when an election would be held is not in her hands. It is in Mr.
Rubio’s.
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