USA and Venezuela: Transition Talks After Maduro's Ouster

The day after the historic U.S. military operation that ousted Nicolás Maduro from power and opened a new chapter in Venezuela, the Donald Trump administration began on Sunday to signal an openness to negotiating a transition with the current chavist leadership if they make the “right decisions” to meet the White House's objectives. Hours later, and in direct response to Washington's warnings, interim President Delcy Rodríguez publicly called for dialogue, demanded respect for Venezuelan sovereignty, and reaffirmed the country's “vocation for peace” in a message addressed “to the world and the United States.”Although Trump himself had stated that the United States would lead Venezuela toward a “peaceful, proper, and judicious transition,” on Sunday the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, held that the U.S. is willing to work with Venezuelan leaders who answered to Maduro, albeit under conditions imposed by Washington.“We are going to judge everything by what [the Venezuelan leaders] do, and we will see what they do. No more use of the oil industry to enrich all of our adversaries around the world,” he explained.The United States maintains a broad military naval presence in the Caribbean that led the incursion against Maduro in Venezuela, and is also in charge of preventing sanctioned oil tankers from taking crude out of Venezuela.For his part, Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, whom the opposition recognizes as the winner of the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, demanded in a video posted on social networks that the electoral result be respected and called on the Armed Forces to comply with the mandate that emerged from the ballot box.“We all desire a bright future for Venezuela, a transition towards democracy,” explained Rubio, who emphasized that the coming weeks and months will be crucial for U.S. interests and regional stability.“They have been with this chavism system for 15 or 16 years, and everyone is asking: ‘Why, 24 hours after Maduro's detention, are there no elections planned for tomorrow?’ Venezuela has the right to peace, to development, to its sovereignty, and to its future,” he concluded. Meanwhile, Maduro, who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is expected to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday at noon, in a hearing that will mark the formal start of the judicial process against him in the United States.Machado, out of the plansEarlier in the day, the Secretary of State had once again closed the door to the possibility of opposition leader María Corina Machado assuming power in Venezuela after Maduro's capture. His message, focused on electoral legitimacy and human rights, avoided any reference to the role Trump attributed to the United States in leading the country.Maduro, before a tribunalWhile the United States seeks to steer the transition in Venezuela, Maduro and his wife—who will spend their second night detained in a high-security federal prison on Sunday—are expected to appear on Monday at noon (local time, 2 p.m. in Argentina) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Manhattan to face charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy, a person with knowledge of the plans told The Washington Post. According to the influential newspaper, Maduro will appear before 92-year-old veteran federal district judge Alvin Hellerstein, who has handled several major cases.“It's not a bad thing in the case of Venezuela,” he insisted. The official made it clear that the Republican administration does not contemplate in its immediate political plans the current Nobel Peace Prize winner for the South American country.“The immediate reality is that, unfortunately, and with sadness, the great majority of the opposition is no longer present within Venezuela. Above all, we care about the security, well-being, and prosperity of the United States,” he explained. Shortly thereafter, Trump himself toughened his tone when referring to Rodríguez, confirmed as interim president by Venezuela's Supreme Court.“If she doesn't do the right thing, she will pay a very high price, probably higher than Maduro's,” the president warned in a brief telephone conversation with The Atlantic magazine.“Rebuilding and changing the regime—whatever you want to call it—is better than what they have now. In the text, she reaffirmed Venezuela's “vocation for peace and peaceful coexistence” and called for rebuilding the bilateral relationship on the basis of mutual respect and international law.“Venezuela aspires to live without external threats, in an environment of respect and international cooperation,” stated Rodríguez, who considered it a priority to advance towards a “balanced and respectful international relationship” between the United States and Venezuela, and with the countries of the region, based on sovereign equality and non-interference. The interim president also extended a direct invitation to the U.S. government to work on a cooperation agenda aimed at shared development, and maintained that “global peace is built by first guaranteeing the peace of each nation.” In a message explicitly addressed to Trump, Rodríguez underlined that “our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” and assured that this has “always been the maxim” of Maduro and chavismo.“If they do not make the right decisions, the United States will maintain multiple levers of pressure,” warned Rubio, a key official for the “Absolute Determination” operation, with which U.S. forces detained Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas and transferred them to a prison in New York. When asked about a possible electoral calendar, Rubio was blunt, stating that it is “premature” to talk about elections in Venezuela. “It's absurd,” Rubio expressed. The official emphasized that the White House would maintain a “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil exports to exert influence over the new leadership, which will surely be one of the central axes of the U.S. strategy for the country's future. “The real normalization of Venezuela will come when all citizens deprived of their liberty for political reasons regain their freedom,” he pointed out.“Your duty is to comply and enforce the sovereign mandate expressed in the ballot box,” stated González Urrutia. González Urrutia also held that recent events represent “an important, but insufficient step,” and stressed that the country's normalization will only be possible if the democratic order is fully restored and all political prisoners are released.“It is a totally failed state, a disaster in every sense,” he reinforced. It was after these statements that Rodríguez disseminated her message on social networks, in which she sought to establish the position of the interim government and mark a contrast with Washington's confrontational discourse. The formal charge is for the crimes of narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The judicial process in New York exposes Maduro and his wife to extreme penalties, up to possible life imprisonment.“It is a failed state. Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at 300,000 million barrels. U.S. forces will continue to prevent sanctioned oil tankers from entering and leaving until the government opens the state oil industry to foreign investment—presumably with priority for American companies—and implements other changes, Rubio indicated on CBS News. “That remains in force, and represents a huge influence that will continue until we see changes, not only to promote the national interest of the United States, which is the priority, but also for a better future for the Venezuelan people,” he said. While he stressed that Washington values democracy and electoral processes, he made clear what the Trump administration's immediate priority is.“No more drug trafficking. There is still a lot of work to be done,” he anticipated. “We have short-term issues that must be addressed immediately. No more presence of Iran and Hezbollah there. “The country has gone to hell.” The charges are based on an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and according to legal experts, it is likely that the magistrate will order the detention of Maduro and Flores pending a trial that could take more than a year to arrive. The 25-page indictment document from the Attorney General's Office accuses Maduro, his wife, his son “Nicolasito,” and two other high-ranking regime officials of enriching themselves illegally during their years in power in Venezuela and of having plans to flood the United States with drugs. “For more than 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted institutions that were once legitimate to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” the complaint states.