Reuters. The United States has a three-step plan for Venezuela that will begin with stabilizing the country after U.S. forces seized leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, overseeing the country's recovery and finally a transition, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday (January 7).
"We don't want it descending into chaos," said Rubio, speaking after briefing U.S. senators on the Trump administration's plan for the Latin American country.
"The second phase will be a phase that we call recovery, and that is ensuring that American, Western and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market in a way that's fair. Also, at the same time, begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela, so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released and from prisons or brought back to the country, and begin to rebuild civil society," Rubio added. "And then the third phase, of course, will be one of transition."
After capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an attack on Caracas on Saturday, the U.S. is continuing to blockade vessels under sanctions off the South American country, a member of the OPEC oil group.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. seized an empty Russian-flagged, Venezuela-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Venezuela's socialist government to become an ally.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces apprehended the Marinera tanker, which had refused to be boarded last month and had switched to Russia's flag, officials said.
