From PBS NewsHour.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate on Wednesday that the U.S. made multiple attempts to get Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro to leave voluntarily before he was captured in a dramatic military operation at the start of the year.
Rubio, testifying before the Senate committee for the first time since Maduro was removed, said Maduro was an “impediment to progress” and could not be trusted to honor a deal.
"What he wanted to do was tap us along and buy three years of time until he could deal with a new administration that he thought may be more favorable," Rubio said.
Maduro’s ouster was “one option that was available to the president after exhausting every other option to remove this individual from the scene,” he added.
President Donald Trump, who said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela, has ordered the U.S. military to control exports of Venezuela’s oil and seize multiple tankers. The Trump administration has carried out dozens of strikes since last year against a series of alleged drug-trafficking boats near Venezuela, killing at least 126 people. It has offered little evidence that these were "narcoterrorists."
Worried about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela, some members of Congress attempted to push a war powers resolution to rein in Trump’s authority to carry out further military action in the country. Those efforts ultimately failed without sufficient Republican support.
Watch PBS News for daily, breaking and live news, plus special coverage. We are home to PBS News Hour, ranked the most credible and objective TV news show.
Sign up for Here’s The Deal with Lisa Desjardins: https://to.pbs.org/41q6E8i
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
PBS News podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS News at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Follow us:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsnews
X: http://www.twitter.com/newshour
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour
Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour
