Marco Rubio defends strikes on Venezuelan boats in briefings to Congress

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed lawmakers on increasing tensions with Venezuela.

Conducting business alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Rubio characterized the sinking of Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean as a “counter-drug mission.”

Between Senate and House briefings, Rubio said that mission remains “focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, threatening and killing Americans, poisoning Americans.”

The nation’s top diplomat returned to the Hill less than a year out from representing Florida — the state with the highest concentration of Venezuelans in America — in the Senate for 16 years. Rubio served as the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee before President Donald Trump appointed him as Secretary of State.

He also had acute knowledge of the flight of Venezuelans from the regime of Nicolás Maduro, and of the impacts of the opioid crisis on the Sunshine State. A day after Trump reclassified fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction,” Rubio defended the force used to destroy and kill traffickers of the substance into the U.S.

“This has been a highly successful mission that’s ongoing and continued,” Rubio said. “We’re pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that’s developing and how that’s moving forward. As I said, I believe it’s our 22nd, 23rd such engagement, certainly, but at least the fourth or fifth that I’ve been involved in, and those will remain.”

While briefings were bipartisan with all members of the House and Senate, reactions differed in terms of the information received.

U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has filed a resolution to block further strikes. He told press after the briefing that he considered the strikes an unauthorized escalation of war and questioned if fighting drugs was the ultimate goal.

“If this is about regime change, it seems to me that the administration should say that’s what it is and should come to Congress to ask for that authorization, which has not taken place,” Meeks said.

Notably, Rubio for years as Florida’s senior Senate called for Maduro to step aside. Rubio visited the Columbia-Venezuela border in 2019, after Trump in his first term announced he would not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of the country. During that push to isolate the regime, Rubio encouraged the Venezuelan military to defy orders and allow humanitarian trucks to reach the nation’s people.

The strikes on Venezuelan boats mark a substantial increase in pressure during Trump’s second term, and Rubio has defended the legality even as Hegseth faces increasing pressure over whether war crimes have been committed with multiple strikes.

But Florida Republicans have effusively praised the policies surrounding Venezuela.

“Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s narcoterrorist Cartel de los Soles will now have a very hard time smuggling lethal drugs, oil and illegal mining out of Venezuela,” posted U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Miami-Dade Republican. “All narcoterrorist Cartel de los Soles ships will be subject to seizure and/or destruction. The end is near.”

GOP leadership in the House also left briefings feeling confident the administration’s approach was both appropriate and grounded in law.

“As the Commander in Chief, President Trump has both the authority and the obligation to defend our homeland, and I think that’s beyond dispute,” said Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.