The ultimate goal of Washington’s energy plan, said Rubio, was to eventually transfer the control of the oil-rich nation’s natural resources back to Venezuela under a stable democratic government.
It was the roadmap to that destination which most concerned a number of Secretary Rubio’s critics in the hearing room.
Still, Rubio exuded confidence when talking about Latin America, one of his strongest area of expertise. Rubio chaired the committee he was facing for many years, and also led its subcommittee on the region.
“We are not even four weeks into this thing,” he responded to a question about how success could be defined and measured.
Already things were moving in “the right direction”, he insisted.
A hydrocarbons law passed under Maduro’s political mentor, Hugo Chavez, had been redrafted to allow greater private investment from US energy companies and Rodriguez was proving to be a willing partner – so far.
“Four, five or six months from now cannot look like now,” he conceded but cited the examples of Spain and Paraguay’s 20th Century transitions to democracy.
Rodriguez as the country’s leader and an energy policy devised and executed by Washington were both immediate necessities, he argued, not long-term strategies.
Eyes across the region will have been fixed on Rubio’s appearance on Capitol Hill — particularly in Venezuela itself and its long-standing communist-run ally, Cuba.
One statement from Rubio, a Florida-born Cuban American with a deep enmity towards the Cuban Government, will have worried authorities in Havana above all. Rodriguez “has pledged to end Venezuela’s oil lifeline to the Cuban regime”, he said in his prepared remarks, and she is “well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives.”
The coming months will reveal whether that belief is well placed.
But either way, the US government’s vision as set out by Rubio involves nothing less than transformative change in Venezuela – and, by extension, in Cuba.