Secretary of State Marco Rubio is defending the Trump administration’s military operation to arrest Nicolás Maduro, characterizing the mission as a “daring” success and asserting that the United States will maintain a naval “quarantine” to exert leverage over what remains of the Venezuelan leadership.

In an interview Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Rubio addressed questions regarding the administration’s strategy following the high-stakes extraction of Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a military base in Venezuela. While Mr. Maduro is now in U.S. custody and faces narcotics-related charges, high-ranking indicted officials like Diosdado Cabello and Vladimir Padrino López remain in power in Venezuela — a fact Mr. Rubio attributed to the tactical limitations of the mission.

“You’re not going to go in and stay there four days to capture four other people,” Mr. Rubio said, dismissing suggestions that the Trump administration should have targeted the entire leadership at once. “We got the top priority,” he said.

Mr. Rubio clarified that President Trump’s recent comments about America “running” the country refer to economic control rather than an occupation. He emphasized that one of the largest naval deployments in modern history will remain in place to maintain order and control.

“What you’re seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next,” Mr. Rubio said. He noted that the industry is “decrepit” and requires private investment that will only be permitted if American demands are met by Maduro allies that remain in the country.

The demands cited by Mr. Rubio include the expulsion of Iranian, Cuban, and Hezbollah players from Venezuela and a cessation of drug trafficking and gang activity. He said the Trump administration also wants to see significant reforms to ensure that the country’s vast oil wealth benefits the Venezuelan people rather than the “oligarchs” who have run the country since Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, took power in 1999. 

The Secretary was pressed on the legitimacy of Delcy Rodríguez, who was reportedly sworn in as leader following Mr. Maduro’s arrest. While Mr. Rubio previously recognized opposition figures Edmundo González and María Corina Machado as the rightful winners of the 2024 election, he appears to be pivoting toward a “realism” based on current conditions.

“We are going to judge moving forward… by what they do, not what they say,” Mr. Rubio said of the current remnants of the Chavismo movement. He pushed back against expectations of an immediate democratic transition, calling the idea of scheduling an election 24 hours after Mr. Maduro’s arrest “absurd.”

Mr. Rubio insisted the primary goal remains national security and the removal of “malign influences” from the Western Hemisphere. “Under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela… as a crossroads for Hezbollah [and] Iran,” Mr. Rubio said. “That’s just not going to exist.”