Rubio defends US operation in Venezuela, calls out reporter for trying to start a fight
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday, going on to call out a reporter for supposedly trying to stir up tension during a press conference.
Rubio made the statement during a joint appearance with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. A reporter referenced Fico’s previous criticism of the U.S. operation against Maduro and asked whether he stood by it, leading Rubio to address the issue first while he was answering other questions from the same reporter.
“I think you asked him a question in order to, like, see if you can get him against us, or something… A lot of countries didn’t like what we did in Venezuela. That’s OK. That was in our national interest,” Rubio said.
“I’m sure there’s something you may do one day that we don’t like, and we’ll say we didn’t like that you did this,” Rubio continued, while turning to Fico. “So what? That doesn’t mean we’re not going to be friends, we’re not going to be partners.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES VENEZUELA TURNING OVER MILLIONS OF BARRELS OF OIL TO US GOVERNMENT ‘IMMEDIATELY’
“We have very close allies that didn’t like what we did in that regard. I can tell you what, it was successful. It was necessary, because the guy was a narco-terrorist, and we made him a bunch of offers,” the secretary continued.
“And look what’s happened in Venezuela in the six weeks since he’s been gone,” Rubio said, acknowledging that the country still has “a long way to go.”
“There’s still much work that needs to be done, but I can tell you Venezuela is much better off today than it was six weeks ago. So we’re very proud of that project. And I know some will disagree… I think everyone can now agree that Venezuela has an opportunity at a new future that wasn’t there six weeks ago,” he added.
Rubio’s statement comes days after President Donald Trump recounted the military’s strength during the operation to capture Maduro. Trump, speaking in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, honored U.S. special forces and their families for their roles in the operation.
STATE DEPT CONFIRMS ‘LIMITED NUMBER’ OF PERSONNEL IN CARACAS WORKING TO RESUME VENEZUELA DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
“It was in a matter of minutes before (Maduro) was on a helicopter being taken out of there. They had to go through steel doors,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “The steels were like it was like paper-maché. You know what paper-maché is? That’s weak paper.”
U.S. special operations forces carried out the successful capture of Maduro and his wife on sweeping narcotics charges. Trump celebrated that there wasn’t single U.S. casualty during the operation, despite Maduro being housed on a heavily-armed military base.
These guys blasted through every door,” Trump continued Friday. “They got up to him before he got to the big safe. But that wouldn’t have worked either, because they had equipment that was going to knock that out in a matter of minutes, but he never got there. It went so fast.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Maduro was whisked off on a helicopter, and brought to the U.S., where he faces federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and weapons-related offenses. He is being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City.
Trump honors special forces behind Maduro capture at Fort Bragg as global tensions escalate
President Donald Trump visited Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Friday to honor U.S. special forces and their families for their roles in the high-profile military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in January.
“We have an amazing group of people before me, very proud of you,” the president said in an address to military personnel and families on base. “I have no higher honor in life than to be your commander in chief.”
He also praised Michael Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) who’s running for Senate in North Carolina. “If he gets in, you’re going to be taken care of. If he doesn’t get in, we’re going to be stripped in the military like they always do, the Democrats.”
DEA ZEROES IN ON CARTEL OF THE SUNS BOSSES AS MADURO IS HAULED INTO US NARCO CASE
He also said if Democrats win control in the midterm elections they would change the Fort Bragg name back to Fort Liberty again, as President Joe Biden did during his administration.
“We got it back very quickly, but they took it off. And if we don’t win the midterms, they’ll take it off again and take it off again. You can’t let that happen.”
Trump went on: “Our military, if the Democrats get in, we’ll be simply early misserved. But we rebuilt it in my first term, and now we’re making it stronger and bigger and better than ever before. The recruiting is through the roof.”
Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, who also spent time with military families during the base visit — one of the largest home stations for U.S. Army special operations forces.
Trump’s social media posts ahead of the visit highlighted what he called “extraordinary” relations between the United States and Venezuela’s interim leadership, including cooperation on oil revenue and transition planning.
After the dramatic capture of Maduro, his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, took over as Venezuela’s leader.
Rodríguez has publicly maintained that both Maduro and Cilia Flores are “innocent,” rejecting assertions of wrongdoing that led to their capture. Despite her alignment with Maduro, the U.S. has insisted it could assert influence over her leadership.
In late January, the U.S. and the interim Rodríguez government signed a massive energy pact. The U.S. has already begun marketing Venezuelan crude oil, with proceeds flowing into U.S.-controlled accounts to be disbursed at the discretion of the U.S. government.
Nearly 200 U.S. troops were involved in the Maduro operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve. Seven were injured.
Venezuela’s defense ministry said 83 people were killed in the mission on its own side, including Venezuelan security forces and 32 Cuban security personnel.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is also home to units that could be deployed if diplomatic efforts in the Middle East falter, including Trump’s push for Iran to reach an agreement or face what he has warned could be a “very traumatic” outcome. The visit comes just as the U.S. deployed a second aircraft carrier, the USS Ford, to the region while talks continue.
The Pentagon has not revealed which military units were involved in the operation.
LAWMAKER WHO FLED COMMUNISM DRAFTS SPECIAL RESOLUTION HONORING TRUMP AFTER MADURO OUSTER
Trump has repeatedly hailed the Maduro capture as a “spectacular” operation that showed the U.S.’s capability to assert dominance in its own backyard. He called the special operators involved a “group of unbelievable talented patriotic people that love our country. You couldn’t hold them back.”
The president has also hinted at a secret weapon he calls the “discombobulator” used in the operation to disable Venezuelan communications and equipment and disorient personnel.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News. “But let me just tell you, you know what it does? None of their equipment works, that’s what it does.
“Everything was discombobulated.”
Maduro’s rise from bus driver to Chávez successor revealed in new documentary
The rise and fall of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro mirrors the reversal in fortune of his once-rich country.
Fox Nation’s new documentary special, “House of Maduro: Palace to Prison,” traces the arc of Maduro’s life from his beginnings as a bus driver to his eventual replacement of Hugo Chávez as Venezuela’s leader.
Simultaneously a character study and a geopolitical explainer, “House of Maduro” examines the political climate cultivated under Chávez and its downstream effects as it evolved under Maduro.
The country’s turmoil was exported in the form of mass migration, drug trafficking, human smuggling and crime, which bled into the United States and ultimately led President Donald Trump to order Maduro’s capture.
“What happens in Venezuela doesn’t stay in Venezuela,” host Rachel Campos-Duffy warns in the documentary. “What’s more, Venezuela stores weapons supplied by Russia, China, and Iran. And it allegedly hosts foreign terrorist groups like Hezbollah.”
HUNDREDS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN VENEZUELA COULD BE RELEASED UNDER NEW AMNESTY BILL
“But what’s next for Venezuela? And what message does this send to America’s foreign adversaries?”
The region faces a turning point. U.S. warships and 10,000 Marines now sit off Venezuela’s coast. Trump has closed the country’s airspace, and Maduro is branded the head of a terrorist cartel. It remains to be seen whether the end of Maduro’s rule will trigger a dangerous new showdown in America’s backyard, or if cooperation will prevail.
SANCTIONED RUSSIAN JET TOUCHES DOWN IN CUBA, ECHOING SECRET FLIGHTS BEFORE MADURO’S OUSTER
These questions are explored in “House of Maduro” through a historical lens. Analysis begins with the rise of Chávez, who once called the president of the United States “the devil” at a United Nations meeting. He died of cancer in 2013, but not before he designated Maduro his preferred successor in his final televised address.
The documentary explains that, when Maduro first took office, he was considered by some to be “a stupid person because he made a lot of errors in his speech.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“He would say things that really did not make any sense. We laughed about him,” one guest said in an interview.
“And really, it was our loss. We underestimated Maduro.”
CLICK HERE TO JOIN FOX NATION
Maduro’s climb to power and capture by U.S. forces unfold in great detail in Fox Nation’s newest special, “House of Maduro: Palace to Prison.”
Subscribe to Fox Nation to stream it now.
Nicaragua blocks pathway used by Cuban migrants to reach the US
Nicaragua’s government has blocked Cuban citizens from entering the Central American country without a visa in a move that eliminates a route for Cuban migration into the U.S.
For years, Cuban migrants would fly to Nicaragua and meet up with smugglers, who would then help them migrate north through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. border, according to The Associated Press.
However, Nicaragua’s government confirmed to the AP that on Sunday it suspended an exemption that allows Cubans to enter Nicaragua without a visa.
Nicaragua’s move comes after President Donald Trump in late January declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime there of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.
POST-MADURO, PRESSURE BUILDS ON MEXICO OVER CUBA’S NEW OIL LIFELINE
What remains for Cuban migrants is primarily Guyana, a small South American nation where Cubans have also traveled in order to reach the U.S.
From Guyana, migrants normally travel through the perilous jungle trenches of the Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama.
In the past, migrants with few other options have also taken precarious boat rides from Cuba to Florida’s coast.
SANCTIONED RUSSIAN JET TOUCHES DOWN IN CUBA, ECHOING SECRET FLIGHTS BEFORE MADURO’S OUSTER
In Trump’s executive order, the president said Cuba aligns itself with and provides support for “numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,” naming Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
The administration said Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which the order states attempts to steal sensitive U.S. national security information.
Last November, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Democracy is on trial in the coming Elections in the beautiful country of Honduras on November 30th.”
“Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?” he asked.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured in a U.S. military operation in early January.
Venezuelan opposition leader seized by armed men after being released from jail
María Corina Machado said Monday that a Venezuelan opposition leader was seized in Caracas shortly after being released from jail.
Machado wrote in a post on X that Juan Pablo Guanipa, a key ally, was kidnapped by heavily armed men in civilian clothing in the Los Chorros area of the capital.
“We demand his immediate release,” she said.
Alfredo Romero, the president of the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal, said 35 political prisoners were released on Sunday, including Guanipa, who was initially arrested in May.
US MOVES FAST TO REOPEN VENEZUELA EMBASSY AFTER YEARSLONG FREEZE
Reuters reported that Venezuelan authorities were seeking court approval to place Guanipa under house arrest.
The country’s Public Ministry alleged that he violated the terms of his release but provided no additional details and did not say whether he had been re-arrested.
Guanipa’s Primero Justicia party said on X that he was forced into a silver Toyota Corolla during the incident.
“We hold Delcy Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, and Diosdado Cabello responsible for any harm to Juan Pablo’s life,” the party wrote. “We call on the international community for the immediate release of Juan Pablo Guanipa and for an immediate and unconditional end to the persecution of the opposition.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
TRUMP EMBRACES US INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA, OPENS DOOR TO BROADER LATIN AMERICA PUSH
Rodríguez has been serving as the interim president of Venezuela since the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores earlier this year.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
In late January, President Donald Trump said Venezuela was releasing political prisoners at a “rapid rate,” praising the move as a “powerful humanitarian gesture” by the country’s leadership.
An estimated 687 political prisoners remain in custody in Venezuela as of Feb. 2, according to Foro Penal.
Maduro ally Alex Saab arrested in joint US-Venezuelan operation, official says
Alex Saab, a former businessman and close ally of captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was arrested in the Latin American country on Wednesday as part of a joint operation between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
Saab, 54, who had previously been held in the U.S., is expected to be extradited to the U.S. in the coming days, the U.S. official told Reuters.
A lawyer for Saab, Luigi Giuliano, was cited in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador later on Wednesday, denying the arrest as “fake news.” Journalists aligned with Venezuela’s government also made social media posts denying that Saab had been arrested.
Giuliano told Venezuelan news site TalCual that Saab may make an appearance to refute the arrest allegations himself but was consulting with the government about what had happened.
VENEZUELA RELEASES ALL KNOWN AMERICAN DETAINEES AFTER MADURO’S CAPTURE AND GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER
Venezuela’s top lawmaker, Jorge Rodríguez, did not confirm or deny the reports during a press conference, saying he had no information concerning the possible arrest.
This comes after the U.S. operation to attack Venezuela and arrest Maduro, and the Trump administration’s subsequent seizing of oil tankers from the country.
Saab’s arrest would suggest a new level of collaboration between U.S. and Venezuelan authorities under the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, who currently controls Venezuela’s law enforcement agencies and actions.
VENEZUELA’S ACTING PRESIDENT OVERHAULS OIL INDUSTRY AMID PRESSURE FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. official highlighted the significance of Rodriguez’s cooperation in the joint operation.
Raul Gorrin, the head of Venezuela’s Globovision TV network, was also arrested in the operation, the official said.
Saab, who was born in Colombia, was previously detained in the African nation of Cape Verde in 2020 and held in the U.S. for more than three years on bribery charges. He was eventually granted clemency in exchange for the release of Americans held in Venezuela.
Before he was granted clemency, U.S. officials had charged Saab with taking around $350 million out of Venezuela through the U.S. as part of a bribery scheme connected to Venezuela’s state-controlled exchange rate.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Saab denied the allegations and appealed to have the charges dismissed on grounds of diplomatic immunity. An appeals court had not ruled on Saab’s appeal by the time the prisoner swap went through.
When he returned to Venezuela at the end of 2023, Maduro praised Saab’s loyalty to the country’s socialist revolution and called him a national hero.
Maduro later appointed Saab as industry minister, a position he held until last month, when he was dismissed by Rodriguez following the arrest of the country’s former leader.