Talks about Venezuelan elections ‘premature’- Rubio

(The Hill)- Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes it is too early to discuss holding elections in Venezuela.

“All of that, I think, is premature at this point. There’s a lot of work to be done here,” Rubio told host Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Saturday, the country’s future is unclear. Rubio told NBC that while Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is “fantastic,” the U.S. needs to address short-term issues in the country, such as the flow of drugs and transport of sanctioned oil.

President Trump told reporters Saturday that the U.S. “will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” adding that American oil companies will “fix” Venezuela’s petroleum infrastructure. The South American country has the largest oil reserves in the world.

“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said.

Trump also said that the U.S. was prepared for a second, “much bigger” attack on Venezuela to capture Maduro. Now, though, such an operation is “probably not” necessary, the president added. Rubio noted Sunday that the U.S. will continue its months-long campaign targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats, if needed.

“Ultimately, above everything else, we care about elections, we care about democracy, we care about all of that,” he said. “But the number one thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States.”