Rubio says US won't govern Venezuela but will press changes through oil blockade

https://apnews.com/live/us-venezuela-trump-maduro-updates-01-04-2026

Rubio says US won’t govern Venezuela but will press changes through oil blockade
Edited By BRIDGET BROWN, HRVOJE HRANJSKI, CURTIS YEE, JIM ANDERSON and LUENA RODRIGUEZ-FEO VILEIRA
Updated 3:33 PM CST, January 4, 2026

Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that the United States would not take a day-to-day role in governing Venezuela other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” on the country, a turnaround after President Donald Trump announced a day earlier that the U.S. would be running Venezuela following its ouster of leader Nicolás Maduro.

Rubio’s statements on TV talk shows seemed designed to temper concerns about whether the assertive American action to achieve regime change might again produce a prolonged foreign intervention or failed attempt at nation-building. They stood in contrast to Trump’s broad but vague claims that the U.S. would at least temporarily “run” the oil-rich nation, comments that suggested some sort of governing structure under which Caracas would be controlled by Washington.

But Rubio offered a more nuanced take, saying the U.S. would continue to enforce an oil quarantine that was already in place on sanctioned tankers before Maduro was removed from power early Saturday and using that leverage as a means to press policy changes in Venezuela.

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In Little Marco We Trust