Venezuela Gave U.S. Clearance for Machado's Return Weeks Ago, Rubio Says

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado can fly home without interference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday, a return that would let her rejoin a political process now controlled by an interim government working with Washington on oil and sanctions. Rubio said Venezuela's interim authorities cleared the trip weeks ago, not in response to recent events. "They told us that she could fly into the airport if she wanted to. And we communicated that to her team," Rubio told reporters.

Machado left Venezuela roughly one month before U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro and left his deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, in charge. The Trump administration has since worked with Rodríguez on oil extraction and other matters while stating its aim is an eventual vote under a democratically elected government. Machado has said she could run for president herself. The one time Rubio discouraged her from returning, he said, was right after a hurricane, when the priority was getting relief flights into the country.

Rodríguez's government has told U.S. officials "weeks and weeks" earlier that Machado could come home, Rubio said. He said his message to those authorities was direct: "our expectation is that she's a Venezuelan. She belongs in her country. That's the country she's from. She should be allowed to return, and she should be allowed to return unperturbed, having no problems."

Rubio described the interim government as meeting deadlines the two sides set for replacing Venezuela's Supreme Court and electoral council, institutions he said Maduro used to control political competition. "We have timelines that are agreed to. And so far, they've met every one of the timelines," Rubio said. No date for a presidential vote has been announced. He said the changes must come before any ballot: "You've got to change the infrastructure of the elections, not in 10 years, not in five years, not in two years."

Rubio tied that cooperation to U.S. leverage over sanctions relief and licenses for economic activity, and to what he called compliance on cutting Iranian and Cuban influence, pursuing criminal organizations, and extraditing people wanted by American authorities. He also declined to say whether Delcy Rodríguez or her brother Jorge, who leads the National Assembly, were offered immunity. "Definitely no talk about prosecutions or anything of this nature," Rubio said, without addressing immunity directly.

Machado has criticized aspects of the administration's economic dealings with the interim government, including an oil agreement. Rubio defended the deal as a way to draw private investment and said her objections sit apart from the question of elections: "She doesn't have to agree with it or like it."

Rubio said a failure to agree on a transition could bring back authoritarian rule or armed conflict, and he said he does not expect the interim authorities to stop cooperating. "If that's the interim authorities that try to do harm to this process or stop complying, then we're gonna have a problem," he said. "But I don't expect that. I really, really don't."

On Cuba, Rubio said last week that he urged Cubans in social media posts to work with the CIA if they wanted "positive change." Asked why he pointed people to the CIA rather than peaceful political change, he said, "I can't answer that," and added that Cuba needs "very dramatic change" and is "a totally different case from Venezuela."