Rubio issues firm threat to Maduro: Accept Venezuelan citizens or face 'severe and escalating sanctions'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a harsh threat to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro: accept Venezuelan citizens deported from the United States or face "severe and escalating sanctions."

In a post on X account, Rubio was clear: the Venezuelan regime must accept, without any concessions, the deportation flights of illegal immigrants of Venezuelan origin, which have become a top priority for the Trump administration following the revocation of temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan citizens who are at risk of losing their legal status in the country very soon.

"Venezuela is obligated to accept its repatriated citizens from the U.S. This is not an issue for debate or negotiation," Rubio wrote on X. "Nor does it merit any reward. Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose new, severe, and escalating sanctions."

Rubio's release comes after the Trump sent more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador on a deportation flight that sparked an important legal battle. Most of those deported allegedly belonged to the feared Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, a group that was designated as a terrorist organization recently.

Prior to that post, Rubio spoke with Rachel Campos-Duffy of Fox News, where he sent another message to Maduro: stop collaborating with Iran, or else there will also be consequences.

In that conversation, Rubio highlighted the courage of María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, and questioned the Maduro regime for destroying the economy and the rule of law in Venezuela, sending criminals to the U.S. amidst the massive migration crisis and collaborating with Iran.

"f all the great figures of the, of the Venezuelan resistance, of the opposition, she is the only one left," Rubio said of Machado. "I don’t say this to criticize those who have left. ... I say it to pay tribute to the courage that María Corina Machado is showing the world every day by setting an example."

"And you have to compare that to the cowardice of the Maduro regime. A drug-trafficking regime, a regime that is friends with Iran, that has invited Iran. The Maduro regime has told Iran that it wants to be Iran’s operational base in our hemisphere," Rubio continued. "A regime who threatens its neighbors in Guyana. That just a few days ago it threatened an American oil tanker belonging to an American company that is legitimately and legally exploring for oil in Guyana; t threatened them and who has also been responsible for the thousands and thousands of gang members from el Tren de Aragua who came here to the United States from Venezuela, and who have created a wave of crime in various cities in this country."

"That regime has an obligation to accept its citizens who are in this country illegally," Rubio insisted. "Specifically, we have asked them to accept the return of all these gang members. Thousands of them from el Tren de Aragua that we have in our custody. And they haven’t, they have not done so. They accepted two flights, less than 200 gang members, and now they are refusing to do any more. That is unacceptable."

"And we have other options to continue punishing that regime," finally noted the secretary of state, who affirmed that President Trump will "never" tolerate Iran having an operational base "in our hemisphere, in Venezuela or anywhere else."