Secretary Rubio says Venezuela operation ensures there will be 'no more Iran, Hezbollah presence there’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tied the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to activity by Iran and Hezbollah within the Latin American country in an interview with CBS News' “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

While some critics in the U.S. have alleged that the administration of President Donald Trump is trying to change its narrative on the reasons for carrying out the arrest operation, Secretary Rubio tied it to the security interests of the United States, particularly regarding threats from outside the Western Hemisphere. 

“The whole, you know, foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Secretary Rubio noted. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere. Within the Western Hemisphere, we have a country, potentially a very rich country, that has cozied itself up, under the control of this regime, has cozied up to Iran. Has cozied up to Hezbollah. Has cozied - has allowed narco-trafficking gangs to operate with impunity from their own territory, allows boats with drugs to traffic from their territory. And we are addressing that.” 

Rubio referred to efforts by enemies of the U.S. to take advantage of Venezuela’s resources, to use them against America. 

“Our objectives when it comes to how Venezuela impacts the national interest of the United States have not changed, and we want those addressed,” Rubio continued. “We want drug trafficking to stop. We want no more gang members to come our way. We don't want to see the Iranian and, by the way, Cuban presence [as] in the past.” 

At the beginning of December, Secretary Rubio had already spoken of the threat to national security due to Venezuela's ties to enemies of the U.S., calling it a "source of instability in the entire region."

🚨RUBIO: IRAN & HEZBOLLAH ARE OPERATING FROM INSIDE VENEZUELA

Senator Marco Rubio just issued one of the starkest warnings yet — and it changes the entire picture of the Venezuela crisis:

“The Venezuelan regime is a source of instability in the entire region…
Iran, its IRGC,… pic.twitter.com/EyTJyRJwA0

— Jim Ferguson (@JimFergusonUK) December 3, 2025

Asked about the possibility of U.S. “boots on the ground” as part of an occupation of the country until things are stabilized, Rubio refused to set boundaries for future U.S. action. 

“Well, I think first of all, the President always retains optionality on anything and on all these matters. He certainly has the ability and the right under the Constitution of the United States to act against imminent and urgent threats against the country,” Secretary Rubio stated. 

He continued, saying that Trump “does not feel like he is going to publicly, you know, rule out options that are available for the United States, even though that's not what you're seeing right now.” 

Secretary Rubio also appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, where he again argued that the U.S. operation in Venezuela is directly tied to national security interests. 

“You can’t flood this country with gang members,” Rubio stated. “You can’t flood this country with drugs that are coming out of Colombia through Venezuela with the cooperation of elements of your security forces. You can’t turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Russia, for Hezbollah, for China, for the Cuban intelligence agents that control that country. That cannot continue. Those things cannot continue to be in place.” 

Secretary Rubio compared the situation in Venezuela to that in Africa, stating, “We’ve seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other continent. They’re not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere.” 

Pushing back on accusations that the U.S. acted in Venezuela in order to gain access to the Latin American country’s oil reserves, Rubio said the U.S. doesn’t need Venezuelan oil. 

“We don’t need Venezuela’s oil,” Rubio stated. “We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we’re not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States.” 

“Why does China need their oil?” he asked. “Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere.” 

“We’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” Rubio emphasized. “It’s as simple as that.” 

“In the 21st Century, under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere, in the sphere of control and the crossroads for Hezbollah, for Iran and for every other malign influence in the country, in the world,” Secretary Rubio reiterated. “That's just not going to exist.”