Rubio Won; Liberty Lost

Is it really a win when the regime you detest stays in place?

In early 2019, Marco Rubio pressed his way through a dense crowd near Colombia’s border with Venezuela, his aides holding back refugees clamoring for a handshake or a photo with the man heralding the imminent arrival, they all felt sure, of liberty for Venezuelans. With his polo shirt dotted with sweat and a Venezuela Libre cap shielding his face from the tropical sun, the then-senator made an urgent appeal to the country’s security forces: Do the right thing and defy Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian orders. “In every person’s life there sometimes comes a key moment,” Rubio said, “when they have to make a decision, a decision that will define the rest of their life.”

This may be that defining moment for Rubio, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, national security adviser, and, now, unofficial Venezuelan viceroy. Maduro’s ouster begins to fulfill an objective central to Rubio’s political identity: ending the reign of Latin America’s leftist strongmen. But it leaves a tandem goal—replacing them with democratically elected governments—nowhere closer to reality. That latter objective is instead colliding with Trump’s focus in Venezuela on oil, migration, and regional dominance. Determined to prove that military intervention will pay for itself, he’s shown no interest in giving the Venezuelan people a say in their own affairs. The disconnect poses a dilemma for Rubio, who had long advocated for widening the circle of those reaping the blessings of liberty.

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