Nicolás Maduro has only been the beginning. on the part of the US has left shock to the world and to the Venezuelan country itself. Washington, with Donald Trump at the head, has announced his ‘control’ over Venezuelawhich is now chaired on an interim basis by Delcy Rodríguez.
But the plan was not only about ‘decapitating’ Chavismo of its main figure and replacing her with its number two. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, has explained the three-phase strategy managed by the Trump Administration for the immediate and medium-term future of Venezuela.
Just four days after the attack on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas, The head of American diplomacy has detailed the plan to Republican senators in a session at the Capitol this Wednesday. Each of the phases is ‘summarized’ in a key word, without room for now for another demanded by Venezuelans and the international community, elections:
- First phase, “stabilization”.
- Second phase, “recovery”.
- Third phase, “transition”.
“Stabilization”
Without going into deadlines, but into projects, Marco Rubio wanted to highlight that “The first step is to stabilize the country.” “We don’t want it to fall into chaos”the Secretary of State added shortly afterwards before the press.
This “stabilization” does not only look at political power, reorganized around the former vice president and all-powerful Minister of Hydrocarbons (the oil portfolio, wow), Delcy Rodríguez. The cThe soul that the US is looking for looks above all at Venezuelan crude oil and the ability to do business with it.
For this reason, Rubio has not denied that this first phase includes the “quarantine” of oil in the Caribbean country, of Venezuelan crude “at market prices.” The first would have already been the subject of commercial operations, as the White House itself announced this Wednesday after the interception of two oil tankers in international waters.
The money from that sale “will then be managed in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people“Trump’s ‘Foreign Minister’ concluded hours later on the matter.
“Recovery”
“The second phase will be what we call recovery“, Rubio continued about the second phase of the US plan. It would involve “guaranteeing that American, Western and other companies have fair access to the Venezuelan market.”
Here he has delved into the political issue, on which They will seek “reconciliation” between both governments to facilitate the amnesty and release of opponents to Chavismo, many of them retaliated and/or imprisoned.
Said approach after the capture of Maduro, in the face of the reservations of the opposition led by María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, both persecuted by the ‘apparatus’ of the State and with its great figures in exile. All of them have remained overshadowed by Trump, whose “control” over Venezuela has put Delcy and his brother, Jorge Rodríguez, in office.
Despite calling the US movement “kidnapping” and “illegitimate aggression”, The new Venezuelan president has opened up to “working together” with the White House for the normalization of relations and the establishment of an agenda of political and economic progress… always with oil as a central figure.
“Transition”
In a very summary way, Marco Rubio has limited himself to pointing out that the third phase will be “of course” that of democratic and social “transition” in Venezuela. “We believe that we will move forward here in a very positive way,” added the US Secretary of State in his subsequent appearance before the media.
Regarding deadlines, ambiguity and a prediction. “Part of this will overlap,” was Rubio’s warning, waiting for the next few weeks… and what Donald Trump may decide at any moment.
Which It does not appear, not even in the draft of the three-phase plan, it is the scene of democratic elections following suspicions of fraud in Maduro’s self-proclaimed victory in 2024. After his capture, Trump did not take long to position himself and rule out the possibility of elections in Venezuela in the short term.
