On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sidestepped questions about the United States’ potential involvement in governing Venezuela.

When ABC’s This Week host George Stephanopoulos asked Rubio if the U.S. was effectively “running” Venezuela, Rubio replied, “What we are directing is the course of future developments.”

This inquiry came after the dramatic overnight capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday. President Donald Trump subsequently announced that Rubio, alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, would oversee the situation in Venezuela.

During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump stated, “For a time, the country will largely be managed by the people you see standing behind me. We will be in charge.”

As a result of these comments, the Washington Post dubbed Rubio the “Viceroy of Venezuela,” highlighting his expanding portfolio, which already includes roles as Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, head of the dismantled USAID, and Archivist of the United States.

Stephanopoulos, who previously worked in President Bill Clinton’s administration, continuously questioned Rubio about the legal basis for the U.S.’s actions in Venezuela and who the U.S. currently recognized as the legitimate leader of the country.

‘So is the United States running Venezuela right now?’ he asked.

After Rubio’s initial remark on the U.S. pointing Venezuela in the right direction, the Secretary of State explained that the United States currently has a quarantine on Venezuela’s oil. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dodges questions Sunday on whether the United States was ‘running’ Venezuela right now, after President Donald Trump volunteered him for the job during his Mar-a-Lago press conference the day before 

President Donald Trump (center) said Saturday from Mar-a-Lago that Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Defense Secretary of Pete Hegseth (right) would ‘run’ Venezuela on the heels of Maduro’s capture 

‘That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met,’ Rubio said. ‘And that’s what we intend to do.’ 

‘So that leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing, and we expect that it’s going to lead to results here,’ Rubio continued. 

He said the United States would ‘set the conditions’ so that Venezuela would no longer be a narco-state. 

‘When the president was asked yesterday who will be running Venezuela, he said it was you, he said it was the Defense Secretary, he said it was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Are you running Venezuela right now?’ Stephanopoulos asked. 

Rubio didn’t explicitly answer the question. 

‘George, I’ve explained again that the leverage that we have here is the leverage of the quarantine. So that is a Department of War operation conducting, in some cases, law enforcement functions with the Coast Guard on the seizure of these boats,’ the Secretary of State said. 

Rubio said he was ‘intricately involved in these policies’ as well as ‘intricately involved in moving forward.’

‘Unfortunately, the person that was there before, who was not the legitimate president of the country, was someone we could not work with,’ he added. 

On ABC News’ This Week, Clinton White House veteran George Stephanopoulos pressed Secretary of State Marco Rubio on who was running Venezuela after the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro and flew him to prison in New York 

In November 2024, under the Biden Administration, the U.S. recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the ‘president-elect’ of the South American nation, despite Maduro’s claims he had won the July ballot. 

González fled for asylum in Spain as part of a deal with Maduro’s government. 

Since Saturday’s capture of Maduro, Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in.

Trump initially heralded her as Maduro’s replacement.

‘He just had a conversation with her,’ Trump said of Rubio. ‘And she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.’

However, in public statements, she called Maduro the country’s ‘only president’ and attacked the U.S. for its ‘barbarity.’  

Rubio was prodded on whether Rodríguez was running Venezuela in the U.S.’s eyes.

‘Well, this is not about the legitimate president. We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election,’ Rubio answered. 

‘But we understand there are people in Venezuela today who are the ones that can actually make changes,’ he continued.  ‘Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections, which they have not had.’ 

At the same time, Rubio downplayed Rodríguez’s negative comments about the United States.

‘Well, we’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences,’ Rubio said. ‘There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries, especially 15 hours or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York.’