Politics & Diplomacy
Rubio: Venezuela’s electoral system must be replaced before any vote, as Machado returns home
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Venezuela's election machinery was built to rig votes and must be replaced first, a day after opposition leader María Corina Machado came back. He gave no election date.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Venezuela’s electoral system was built to rig elections and has to be replaced before a valid vote can be held, a day after opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to the country. He spoke to reporters by teleconference, in remarks published by the State Department.
Rubio gave no date for elections. He said Washington sees “real progress” in the talks between the interim government in Caracas and the opposition, and warned that “if anybody tries to derail that process, they’re doing a great harm to Venezuela”, according to Reuters.
Courts and electoral council first
The negotiations are meant to remake the Supreme Court (TSJ) and the National Electoral Council (CNE) before any national vote. A senior State Department official told reporters that the talks are expected to produce a new top court by the end of 2026 and a new electoral council shortly afterwards, Reuters reported. Rubio asked how a legitimate vote could take place while the electoral council is controlled by one side, and said the changes could not wait for years, the IANS news agency reported.
He said the interim authorities had so far met every agreed timeline, and that Washington has “significant influence” over the direction of the talks through sanctions relief and oil licences, which he suggested could be reconsidered. “No one’s going to wait us out here,” he said, according to IANS.
Machado’s return
Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had been out of Venezuela for about ten months. Rubio said the United States told the interim authorities several weeks ago that “she’s a Venezuelan, she belongs in her country”, and that she entered the country without problems on Sunday. Reuters noted that her movement, Vente Venezuela, has not taken part in the talks and that she has criticised an oil deal President Donald Trump struck with the interim rulers. Rubio said the deal benefits both countries and that her disagreement should not derail the wider transition.
He also warned that if the process fails, the alternative would be “violence and armed conflict within the country” or a return to the conditions of the past two decades, IANS reported. Machado has called for elections by mid-2027; Trump has previously said he does not think Venezuela is ready for a nationwide vote, Reuters said.
Background
Nicolás Maduro was taken to New York for trial after a US operation on January 3, and Delcy Rodríguez now leads the interim government. Rubio said Washington judges her administration “not by rhetoric but by action” and denied that any immunity from prosecution had been offered to interim leaders. Geopolitiki reported on US says Venezuela’s third round of reconciliation talks agreed to revise repressive laws, claims more than 1,000 political prisoners freed, the State Department’s account of the most recent round of talks.
