US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens at President Donald Trump's news conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 03, 2026. JOE RAEDLE / AFP
The United States is ready to work with Venezuela's remaining leaders if they make "the right decision," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday after an audacious US operation removed the oil-rich country's president, Nicolas Maduro.
"We're going to judge everything by what they do, and we're going to see what they do," Rubio told CBS News' Face the Nation. "I do know this: that if they don't make the right decision, that the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage."
US commandos snatched Maduro from a compound in Caracas on Saturday in a risky operation involving jets, helicopters, warships and ground troops. He is now in a New York detention cell awaiting a court appearance expected Monday on federal narcotrafficking and weapons charges.
Rubio appeared to significantly soften President Donald Trump's extraordinary statements on Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela and that he would not be afraid to put military "boots on the ground." Instead, he made clear that Washington is ready to try working with Venezuela's vice president and now acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the rest of the ousted leader's cabinet.
