Rubio Declares That Maduro Is NOT The President Of Venezuela

Here we go again? US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Sunday that the Venezuelan government is “illegitimate” in a written statement on X.

“Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government,” Rubio wrote on X. “Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country.  And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States.”

This hearkens back to the days of trying to force the world to recognize Juan Guaidó as actual president, and the Venezuelan opposition leader has since faded into obscurity.

But currently, Rubio and the Trump administration are angry about the alleged shady circumstances surrounding Maduro’s reelection win from last where, after which the Biden administration declared it was ‘stolen’.

The Biden White House had insisted that that Edmundo González was the rightful president, after the US State Department-funded Carter Center produced analysis which pointed to alleged election rigging.

In February, the freshly installed Trump administration made its intentions toward Caracas clear when Secretary Rubio ordered the seizure a plane owned by the Venezuelan government, which was being held in the Dominican Republic.

And just days ago, on Friday, the Treasury Department on Friday designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles – known in English as the Cartel of the Suns – as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity, accusing President Maduro and senior members of his regime of leading the group (referenced in Rubio’s latest tweet) and supporting major drug cartels whose activities threaten U.S. national security.

Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 27, 2025

The designation, issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 25 under counterterrorism authorities, blocks all property and interests of the group within US jurisdiction, and generally prohibits Americans from engaging in transactions with it.

During the first Trump administration, the US seemed to be pursuing a full path of regime change, and at one point the option of a naval blockade of the country was on the table, to prevent any oil exports – but which never fully materialized as it would have been an act of war. But Trump officials have recently been attempting behind-the-scenes diplomacy with Maduro, ironically enough, and have even gotten Americans out of prison.