Rubio says Venezuela shows promise after raid amid ‘gangster paradise’

The Trump administration is seeking a transition to a “friendly, stable, prosperous” Venezuela that is democratic and holds free and fair elections, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Wednesday, but cautioned it won’t happen overnight.

Mr. Rubio pointed to progress while pleading for patience during his first Capitol Hill grilling after the U.S. raid to remove Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.

The secretary said the acting government in Caracas is taking positive steps. It released political prisoners and committed to using oil revenue to buy medicine for its people, for instance.

“We are much further along on this project than we thought that we would be, given the complexities of it, going into it,” Mr. Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We are dealing with people over there that have spent most of their lives living in a gangster paradise.”

Mr. Trump ordered the U.S. military on Jan. 3 to capture Mr. Maduro and fly him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.

Mr. Rubio said the U.S. intervened because Venezuela was being governed by an indicted drug trafficker who let his country become the “base of operations for virtually every competitor, adversary and enemy in the world.”

The secretary said Russia and Iran used Venezuela as a main post in the Western Hemisphere, while China received Venezuelan oil at a huge discount.

Now, he said, the U.S. will control the shipment of crude to transition to a “normal oil industry” that benefits Venezuela instead of a small group of government “cronies.”

“They have pledged to use a substantial amount of those funds to purchase medicine and equipment directly from the United States,” Mr. Rubio said.

He said the U.S. will keep a close eye on how the acting leadership in Caracas uses its oil money.

Committee Chairman James Risch, Idaho Republican, praised the military raid in Caracas and said the capture of Mr. Maduro made America safer.

“Every American should be thanking Donald Trump and Marco Rubio for what they have done,” Mr. Risch said.

The committee’s ranking Democrat said Mr. Maduro was a bad guy, but it was unclear what the Trump administration was trying to achieve.

“The Maduro regime is essentially still in power. All the same people are running the country,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, said. “We’ve traded one dictator for another.”

Mr. Rubio said the Trump administration is prioritizing stability, so the transition to fair elections and new leaders will not happen overnight.

“We’re not going to get there in three weeks,” the secretary said. “It’s going to take some time.”

Foreign leaders and others generally praised the removal of Mr. Maduro, though the daring raid raised questions about U.S. intervention in other countries and whether Mr. Trump would seek control of other lands, including Greenland.

A protester interrupted the hearing with a sign that said, “Hands off Venezuela.” Capitol Police hauled him out of the room.

Ms. Shaheen warned Mr. Rubio that Mr. Trump was undermining NATO with his antagonism toward allies, pointing to his rhetoric during an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Canada’s decision to seek warmer trade relations with China.

Mr. Rubio said it will all work out.

“Our partners understand the importance of the U.S. presence in NATO,” he said. “Without the U.S., there is no NATO.”