"In early 2019, Marco Rubio pressed his way through a dense crowd near Colombia's border with Venezuela, his aides holding back refugees clamoring for a handshake or a photo with the man heralding the imminent arrival, they all felt sure, of liberty for Venezuelans. With his polo shirt dotted with sweat and a Venezuela Libre cap shielding his face from the tropical sun, the then-senator made an urgent appeal to the country's security forces: Do the right thing and defy Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian orders."
"This may be that defining moment for Rubio, Donald Trump's secretary of state, national security adviser, and, now, unofficial Venezuelan viceroy. Maduro's ouster begins to fulfill an objective central to Rubio's political identity: ending the reign of Latin America's leftist strongmen. But it leaves a tandem goal-replacing them with democratically elected governments-nowhere closer to reality. That latter objective is instead colliding with Trump's focus in Venezuela on oil, migration, and regional dominance."
In early 2019 Marco Rubio pushed through crowds near Colombia's border with Venezuela, appealing directly to security forces to defy Nicolás Maduro and seize a defining moment. Rubio has since served in senior roles within the Trump administration and emerged as an unofficial Venezuelan viceroy. Maduro's ouster advances a long-standing goal of ending the region's leftist strongmen but has not produced democratically elected replacements. The administration's priorities on oil, migration, and regional dominance have deprioritized Venezuelan electoral self-determination. As a result, freedom and democracy in Venezuela appear sacrificed to geopolitical and strategic aims.
Read at The Atlantic
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