Sen. Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that the U.S. has to “make sure the people that are in charge of the apparatus of the Venezuelan government are not going to continue Nicolás Maduro’s ways.”
President Trump “wants to give them a chance to turn the page in Venezuela and to help America achieve our policy goals there,” Cotton said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized during an overnight U.S. raid on their home in Caracas after it had conducted airstrikes in Venezuela in support of what the administration says was a law enforcement operation to enforce an indictment charging him with narco-terrorism. They arrived in the U.S. on Saturday night, and Maduro was transported to theMetropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn.
Mr. Trump said Saturday that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, had been sworn in to replace him. Many from Maduro’s regime who have alleged ties to narco-terrorists as well as U.S. adversaries remain in power in Venezuela, andMr. Trump said Saturdaythat opposition leader María Corina Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead.
In a separate appearance on “Face the Nation,”Secretary of State Marco Rubiodeflected when asked about other indicted members of Maduro’s Cabinet who are still in place.
“So you wanted us to land in five other military bases?” Rubio said, adding that Maduro was the “top target.”
“But we’re not just addressing the regime,” Rubio said. “We are addressing the factors that are a threat to the national interest of the United States.”
Although Rubio — like the Biden administration— has recognized Edmundo González as the winner of the 2024 election, Rubio did not answer whether he believes González should be the leader of the country. Rubio instead said, “There’s the mission we are on right now.”
Cotton on Sunday reiterated some of Rubio’s points about what the Trump administration wants to see in Venezuela’s government, which is still composed of Maduro’s allies.
“We want them to stop the drug and weapons trafficking,” Cotton said. “We want them to kick out the Iranians, the Cubans, the Islamic radicals like Hezbollah and just return to being a normal nation that will help build stability, order and prosperity, not just in Venezuela but in our backyard.”
Cotton said he felt that new elections “should be a goal,” and he said he hoped the government in place would allow the return of political exiles such as Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October.
“In some period of time — it probably is not going to be days or weeks, maybe a number of months — that you can have new elections in Venezuela that are free and fair,” Cotton said.