Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly the “de facto viceroy of Venezuela,” as the United States continues to exert control over the country following the earlier kidnapping of its dictator, Nicolás Maduro, by U.S. forces. The operation helped install a government more closely aligned with Washington’s interests, but Rubio is the one overseeing it.
🚨 JUST IN: A bad*ss new report finds that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "runs Venezuela from Washington"
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 11, 2026
"Mr. Rubio now effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government." — NYT
EPIC 🔥🔥
"The fact is that Mr. Rubio does… pic.twitter.com/FhpKZPtNCE
According to the New York Times, "Mr. Rubio now effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government," citing interviews with over a dozen officials close to both the U.S. and Venezuelan governments.
The secretary of state is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations, keeping in close contact with Delcy Rodríguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s vice president and now leads her country on an acting basis, with the imprimatur of the United States. The two exchange messages in Spanish on WhatsApp, trading gossip, birthday greetings and selfies.
"Despite the banter, the relationship between Mr. Rubio and Ms. Rodríguez is far from a partnership," the NYT added. "It is a manifestation of Trump-era American power, in which the winner takes all regardless of sovereignty and international law."
The most brazen exercise of U.S. control over Venezuela lies in Secretary Rubio’s apparent grip on the country’s finances. According to the Times, the U.S. Treasury now collects revenue from Venezuela’s exports, then funnels it back through Venezuelan banks, on conditions set by Rubio and his team dictating exactly how the money can be spent and by whom.
This arrangement has allowed Rubio to mitigate some of Venezuela’s most egregious corruption schemes. It also ensures that the Venezuelan government is shielded under the effective protection of the U.S. Treasury, where Caracas can collect revenue without being hounded by creditors demanding repayment of billions in defaulted debt.
Viceroy Rubio does have a ring to it. https://t.co/krAEpADCAF pic.twitter.com/65pPbkCFAq
— MythoMarco (@MythoMarco) July 11, 2026
This comes as the Trump administration has moved not only to realign Venezuela with American interests, pulling it away from our foreign adversaries, but to secure access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, among the largest and most valuable in the world. The United States is currently importing more than 700,000 barrels per day from Venezuela, the highest weekly level since October 2018.
While that remains a modest share of total U.S. oil imports, it signals Washington’s intent to make Venezuela a larger contributor not just to America’s energy supply, but to the global market as well. To that end, President Trump has pushed U.S. companies to invest heavily in Venezuelan oil infrastructure.
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