Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was not an act of war against Venezuela and how the Trump administration plans to govern that country for the foreseeable future. “There’s not a war,” he said. “I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela.” “We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions. We have sanctioned entities. We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize those boats with oil. And that will continue. And we will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs towards the United States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations including the Cartel de los Soles,” he said. “Of course their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in U.S. custody and facing U.S. justice in the Southern District of New York. And that’s Nicolas Maduro. So we made a big progress in that regard.” “We don’t have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela,” he repeated. “No, we don’t have U.S. forces on the ground. Everyone knows they were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro.” “The Department of Justice, dating back in the Biden administration had a $ 25 million reward for his capture. And so we have a reward for his capture, but we’re not going to enforce it? That’s the difference between President Trump and everybody else. It’s easy to make a wanted poster and say $ 50 million for the capture of Maduro. But no one takes that seriously because you’re not going to anything about it. President Trump did something about it.”
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