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by
Jason Ma
January 04, 2026
from
Fortune Website
Article also
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Information sent by MJGdeA
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
listens
as President Donald Trump addresses the media
during a news
conference at his Mar-a-Lago club
on January 3,
2026, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle - Getty
Images
Rubio says the
U.S.
doesn't need
Venezuelan oil
and doesn't rule
out
occupying the
country
President
Donald Trump touted U.S. access to Venezuelan oil
after
ousting Nicolas Maduro, but Secretary of State Marco
Rubio pointed to other foreign policy priorities.
Trump said U.S. oil companies will invest billions of dollars to
rebuild the country's energy infrastructure after years of
mismanagement that has slashed production despite Venezuela having
the world's largest proven oil reserves.
"We're going to have a presence in Venezuela
as it pertains to oil," he told reporters on Saturday.
"We're going to be taking a tremendous amount
of wealth out of the ground."
In an interview Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press
(below video)
with Kristen Welker, Rubio was asked why the U.S. needs to
take over Venezuela's oil industry.
"We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have
plenty of oil in the United States.
What we're not going to allow is for the oil
industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the
United States," he replied, naming
Russia,
China and
Iran.
"This is the Western Hemisphere. This is
where we live.
And we're not going to allow the Western
Hemisphere to be a base of operations for adversaries,
competitors, and rivals of the United States, simple as that."
Rubio also said the U.S. wants to see Venezuela's
oil wealth benefiting the people.
During Maduro's rule,
the regime and its cronies
enriched themselves with oil, contributing to the an economic
collapse and the mass exodus of people out of the country, he added.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has left Maduro's top lieutenants in place, and
Trump suggested Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez,
will 'take orders from the U.S.'...
But if the country's current leaders don't cooperate, Trump has left
open the possibility that he could send U.S. ground troops into
Venezuela.
When asked in a separate
interview on CBS's Face the Nation
if there is no plan for a U.S. occupation of Venezuela, Rubio
declined to rule that out.
"Well, I think first of all, the president
always retains optionality on anything and on all these
matters," he said.
"He certainly has the ability and the right
under the Constitution of the United States to act against
imminent and urgent threats against the country."
For now, U.S. forces remain in the region at a
high state of readiness, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan
Caine said Saturday. Trump also said U.S. sanctions will stay in
place on Venezuelan oil.
Rubio explained that the sanctions are aimed at,
"paralyzing that portion of how the regime
generates revenue."
He also dismissed fears about boots on the ground
as an "obsession."
"Trump does not feel like he is going to publicly
rule out options that are available for the United States, even
though that's not what you're seeing right now," Rubio added.
"What you're seeing right now is an oil
quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what
happens next."
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