The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubiogave this Wednesday the Spanish Transition as an example for Venezuela. A transition, he said, in which he believes that the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, can “play a role.”
The head of American diplomacy obvious, however, that in the Spanish case it occurred after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco. In Venezuela, however, what has happened is that the Trump Administration is working with Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro ally who took over as interim president after her capture in a CIA operation earlier this month.
“There are precedents. I can mention several examples, such as Spain or Paraguay, places where there was a transition from an autocratic regime to a democracy and it took time,” Rubio said during a Senate hearing to explain the Government’s policy towards Venezuela.
The head of US diplomacy specified that he cannot now give “an exact time frame” for how long the transition will take in Venezuela, but he stressed that “it cannot last forever.”
In any case, he considered that María Corina Machado, with whom he will meet this Wednesday at the State Department, “can be part” of this transition in Venezuela. However, he has specified that, today, he does not control the power structures of the regime.
Rubio has also argued that Maduro had to be removed from power because Venezuela had become a base of operations for US adversaries, including China, Russia and Iran, and because his alleged cooperation with drug trafficking was affecting the region and Washington. “It was an unsustainable situation and it had to be addressed,” he said.
For this reason, he explained that the objective of the Trump Administration after the capture of Maduro is to achieve a “friendly, stable, prosperous and democratic Venezuela”, in which “free and fair elections” are held. But he acknowledged that that horizon cannot be reached in weeks. “It’s going to take time,” he admitted.
After Maduro’s departure, Rubio stated, the immediate priority was to avoid a scenario of instability, given the possibility of “a civil war” or a mass exodus to Colombia breaking out.
To this end, the US established “direct and respectful conversations” with the interim authorities, in reference to Delcy Rodríguez.
Regarding the interim president, Rubio has stated that, for the moment, “she is collaborating”, especially in drug trafficking and intelligence, but has reiterated her threat that she will suffer the same fate as Maduro if she does not comply with US demands.
Part of the strategy includes a mechanism through which Venezuela can sell sanctioned oil at market price under US “supervision”, with the aim of financing the Police and the government apparatus and guaranteeing that the resources are used “for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”
“This short-term mechanism stabilizes the country and ensures that sanctioned oil revenues benefit the Venezuelan people, not the previous system,” he explained.
The second phase, according to the Secretary of State, aims at economic recovery and the normalization of the oil industry, which has the largest reserves in the world, promoting “sales without corruption and without favoritism.”
In that sense, Rubio applauded that the Venezuelan Parliament recently eliminated many of the restrictions on hydrocarbons for private companies.
He also stressed the need to open political spaces to the opposition, recalling that there are still close to 2,000 political prisoners in the country. On this point, he acknowledged that the releases are occurring more slowly than desired, but assured that “they are being released.”
Heckled by a protester
Rubio’s speech was interrupted by a protester who yelled at him to “take his hands off” the Latin American country.
From the spectators’ gallery, a man interrupted the session by raising a banner and shouting “hands off Venezuela and Cuba”, moments before the first intervention of the head of US diplomacy to explain the plans in Venezuela.
Security agents forcibly removed the protester from the room and the president of the Foreign Committee, Republican Jim Risch, referred to the man before he left the hearing: “You know what it’s like, straight to jail and banned from this committee for a year,” he said.