US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the US will judge Venezuela based on its future actions. He also said the Cuban government is a major problem but did not confirm whether it would be the US's next target.
On 4 Jan 2026 GMT+7, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will judge Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez based on her future actions after she criticized US military operations and demanded the immediate release of Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Ms. Rodriguez was recently appointed acting president of Venezuela after Mr. Maduro was arrested by the US on Saturday.
Previously, US President Donald Trump claimed that Ms. Rodriguez was very willing to do what was necessary to make Venezuela great again, before she issued a statement attacking the US and reaffirming that Mr. Maduro is the sole president of Venezuela.
However, Rubio said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, “We expect to see more compliance and cooperation from Venezuela than we have seen in the past.”
“The US will evaluate based on what those currently in power in Venezuela do, not on what they publicly say at this time, nor on what we know they have done in the past, but on what they do from now on,” Rubio said.
“I am well aware that if they do not make the right decisions, the US will keep various leverage measures to ensure our interests are protected, including the current oil embargo and other measures.”
Meanwhile, Rubio did not directly answer reporters' questions on whether Cuba would be the Trump administration’s next target, but he called the Cuban government a “major problem” and pointed out that it was Cubans, not Venezuelans, who guarded Maduro before his eventual arrest.
“Yes, I think they are in a difficult position,” Rubio said on Meet the Press. “I won’t tell you what our next steps or policies will be, but it’s no secret that we are not fans of the Cuban regime.”
Rubio also emphasized that it is the Cubans who “sustain Maduro.”
“All his internal security mechanisms are controlled by Cubans,” Rubio said. “Cubans guard Maduro; he is not protected by Venezuelan bodyguards but by Cuban ones. The internal intelligence units—tasked with spying on each other to ensure no one is a traitor—are all Cuban.”
. cnn