When Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro was captured during the meticulously planned U.S. Military 'Operation Absolute Resolve,' there was no one happier to see the oppressive strongman taken into custody than Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Well, the Venezuelan people were probably the happiest considering the years of oppression they endured under Maduro and his regime. But, as far as Americans are concerned, Secretary Rubio was probably discreetly pumping his fist in the air.
Why?
Through several sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity several years ago, The Floridian has learned that during President Donald Trump's first term in office, then-Senator Marco Rubio tried in earnest to convince the president to take direct action against Maduro. Still, then-Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster squashed the suggestion.
Senator Rubio is alleged to have come very close to convincing Trump to go after the Maduro regime.
Ironically, some congressional Democrats sided with Rubio and wanted Trump to take out Maduro back in 2019, but are now trashing his arrest of Maduro.
Rubio was instrumental in not only shaping the Trump administration's foreign policy with Venezuela and the entirety of the Western Hemisphere, but he also took part in helping frame the administration's entire global foreign policy.
Mission Accomplished. It only took about 6 years.
Remember, during President Trump's first term in office, Maduro's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello threatened then-Senator Rubio's life. The threat was so credible that Rubio received a security detail in Washington, D.C., as well as when he traveled home to Miami, Florida.
Many of us, who over the years travelled with Rubio from Miami to Washington and back, witnessed the needed security measures that were deployed.
Rubio would be brought to and from the aircraft from the actual tarmac by Miami-Dade Police every time he flew out of Miami International Airport.
This went on for years until the threat apparently subsided.
Years later, Rubio got some vindication with Maduro's arrest.
The Cuban regime helped prop up the late-Hugo Chavez and Maduro, and all but controlled the Venezuelan government from Havana. This was evident when U.S. Special Forces encountered and neutralized the Cuban security forces that directly protected Maduro.
Rubio has been the tip of the spear of American foreign policy against the Castro regime.
Maduro is gone, but his henchmen like Cabello remain, for now.
Will the Trump administration target Cabello and other members of the regime that are directly tied to narco-trafficking and humanitarian atrocities?
Probably.
Will Rubio see his nemesis jailed or killed?
We can only hope so.
But while some will allege the mission to capture or kill Maduro was a personal vendetta that Rubio orchestrated, it was not.
Would Rubio enjoy punching Maduro and Cabello in the face if he could? Of course he would.
"I don't think Marco is doing this for personal reasons at all," said Cesar Conda, Senator Rubio's first Chief of Staff from 2011 to 2014, and now a Founding Partner of all-Republican lobbying firm Navigators Global. "He's had a long-term focus on Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere since his early years as a U.S. Senator from Florida."
Conda outlined Rubio's family's past experiences with the "evils of socialism and communism."
"His parents' experience in Cuba has hard-wired his views on the evils of socialism and communism. Marco and Trump have been working closely together on Western Hemisphere policy since the President's first term. The Secretary and the President are doing this to protect America's interests and to stabilize the Western Hemisphere," added Conda in a statement to The Floridian.
Viva Cuba? "Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!?"
For Rubio, like most of the individuals who have been neck-deep into the political dynamics orchestrated by the Castro regime in the region (including myself), the bigger strategic play is ending the tyrannical reign of the Castro regime in Cuba.
Cuba could very well be next on President Trump's ambitious "America First, Communism Last" agenda.
Trump has already signaled that he could shift his crosshairs over Havana, saying that "Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about" during his press conference to announce Maduro's capture.
"Cuba is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years, and I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation and we want to help the people get very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country," said President Trump.
Trump then called Rubio to the podium to remark about the future of the Cuban dictatorship, and he didn't mince his words.
"One of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is that they have to declare independence from Cuba that tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint," said Secretary Rubio. "Yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned at least," added Rubio.
Venezuela's Great Wall Crumbles
The Miami congressional delegation, Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Carlos Gimenez, have complemented the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" economic targeting of the "Axis of Evil" stemming from Venezuela, and the use of kinetic military force to neutralize drug-running cartels operating in and surrounding Venezuela.
With Maduro having circumvented the imposed economic sanctions by the Trump administration, experts on Venezuelan affairs proclaimed that the oil sanctions needed to be readdressed and lifted because they were no longer working.
These same experts also believed that true change and prosperity were not feasible with Maduro in power.
Well, all the sanction side-stepping and atrocious human rights violations by Maduro and his regime led to the "F*ck Around And Find Out" (FAFO) consequences that Trump and Rubio handed over last weekend.
Rubio, who once headed the Senate Intelligence Committee and was privy to top-secret information regarding the actions and holdings of both the Maduro and Castro regimes in the region, held his ground in support of the sanctions and warned of the "evil regimes" that were compromising the "democratic world."
“Rogue regimes and bad actors always unite to give each other support and international legitimacy. The Maduro narcoregime’s continued cooperation and coordination with Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba makes clear just how far removed they are from the democratic world. Democratic nations must unite against those evil regimes to defend global stability, security, and basic human rights,” stated Sen. Rubio.
Will the U.S. Military now steam north to the Straits of Florida in a show of force against Communist Cuba?
Tick tock. Tick tock.
