By: Staff Writer
July 29, 2025
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulled no punches against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, calling him a “narco-terrorist leader,” in a blistering verbal attack as Venezuela was set to hold municipal elections to fill hundreds of mayoral and council seats.
The municipal contests are happening one day before the one-year anniversary of Venezuela’s presidential election, which was widely condemned by the United States and other international observers as illegitimate. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has been escalating pressure against Maduro in recent days, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday accused the foreign head of state of being the leader of an entity aiding terrorism against the U.S.
Maduro has hit back and called Rubio an “imbecile,” for making veiled threats over Venezuela’s claim over Guyana.
Venezuela has been under US sanctions since July, 2017 in the first Donald Trump administration where executive order 13808 prohibited the Venezuelan government from accessing U.S. financial markets, allowing for “exceptions to minimize the impact on the Venezuelan people and U.S. economic interests.
There was also additional sanctions against Venezuela’s state owned (SOE) oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) and prohibited the SOE from receiving financing or obtaining new debt.
The sanction on PfVSA has all but crippled the Venezuelan oil industry as it could not sell oil in many jurisdictions that were allied with the US or US related banks.
Rubio, while not stating that there will be more sanctions against Venezuela, took to X and said: “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.”
In a previous official statement, Rubio stressed that “Maduro defied the will of the Venezuelan people by baselessly declaring himself the winner of Venezuelan elections in 2024” “The United States will continue working with our partners to hold accountable the corrupt, criminal and illegitimate Maduro regime,” he concluded.
Back in January, then President-elect Donald Trump had recognized Edmundo Gonzalez as the president of Venezuela.
“Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people, with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime,” he stated in a TruthSocial post.
A few weeks later, Secretary Rubio also reiterated the White House’s position, calling Edmundo Gonzalez the “rightful president” of Venezuela.