I was just getting ready to wrap up my day and kick back with a little Golden Girls and ginger ale zero (living on the edge!), when I saw that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s schedule for tomorrow says he’s meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. Admittedly, that made my heart sing a little bit.
Ohhh, @marcorubio will meet with @MariaCorinaYA tomorrow. Great news!
— SarahDownSouth (@SarahDownSouth) March 31, 2026
I know she is the future of that country, and I’ve become so invested in the future of that country that watching all the progress we’re making unfold in real time is quite a thrill. Everyone is talking about Iran nonstop, but this is true history in the making. Some days, it does feel like one step forward, two steps backward, but overall, things are progressing quite nicely there, thanks to Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, as well as Machado, who is rallying support everywhere she goes and even back home in Venezuela.
As I reported on Saturday, while the spoiled leftist loons in this country were parading around, acting as if they live under tyranny, the people in Venezuela — who truly have lived under tyranny for decades — were celebrating the re-opening of Machado’s Vente Venezuela office. It’s been shut down for nearly two years because of the Nicolás Maduro regime’s thuggish tactics. To put it in U.S. terms, imagine the Trump administration going around to various Democrat Party headquarters and looting, vandalizing, and destroying everything, as well as threatening and disappearing the staff. That’s what it was like to participate in a non-Maduro-led political party in Venezuela.
Related: While Idiots Marched, Trump Quietly Delivered a Major Victory Over Real Tyrants
But yeah, no kings.
Anyway, the opening of the Vente Venezuela office is a small but mighty sign of the way things are changing there. There are others. On Monday, the State Department announced the official resumption of operations at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. I won’t dwell on that too much since it’s something I’ve written a lot about in recent weeks, but here’s the State Department’s press release on it:
Since March 2019, U.S. diplomatic engagement with Venezuela has been carried out through the Venezuela Affairs Unit (VAU), the interim diplomatic office of the U.S. Government to Venezuela, located at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. Today, we are formally resuming operations at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, marking a new chapter in our diplomatic presence in Venezuela.
In January, Ambassador Laura F. Dogu arrived in Caracas to lead the U.S. government’s efforts on the ground in Venezuela as Charge d’Affaires. Ambassador Dogu’s team is restoring the chancery building at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas to prepare for the full return of personnel as soon as possible and the eventual resumption of consular services. The resumption of operations at U.S. Embassy Caracas is a key milestone in implementing the President’s three‑phase plan for Venezuela and will strengthen our ability to engage directly with Venezuela’s interim government, civil society, and the private sector.
Rubio himself did an interview with Al-Jazeera on Monday, and he spoke about the progress. He said the country is “moving along very well.” He talked about the first phase of a post-Maduro Venezuela, which was to stabilize things — to avoid civil war, systematic collapse, and mass migration, all of which we’ve managed to do.
He also talked about the beginning of phase two, which was recovery, and how it’s now running concurrently with phase one:
…you try to recover the elements of the country that allow it to prosper and grow. And that is attracting businesses back. We’re seeing that begin to happen. But you’re also seeing civil life come back to life. Independent media is now allowed to operate. Political prisoners have been released. Political parties are forming again. People are speaking and participating in public life.
(For what it’s worth, there are still, according to Foro Penal, over 500 political prisoners incarcerated, so not a total win, but we’re getting there.)
“For the first time in decades, Venezuela is now selling their oil in the global market at full market price,” he said. “The money is coming back to Venezuela and being spent for the benefit of the Venezuelan people… it’s being spent to buy medial goods and equipment. It’s being spent to cover the salaries of teachers, police officers, and civil servants and sanitation workers and things of this nature.”
Ultimately, our goal is, of course, to reach phase three, which is the transition to a legitimate, democratically elected government.
“For Venezuelan to fulfill its economic potential, it has to have a stable democratic government that people are willing to invest in that economy because they know they’ll be protected by laws and courts and legitimacy,” he said. “So, we are well on our way to achieving this.”
My TV show and ginger ale are calling, so I’ll stop here and leave you with some videos from Rubio’s interview and let him do the rest of the talking, but just know that Venezuela is progressing, possibly faster than anyone believed it would.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Venezuela is moving along very well. Our hope was to stabilize the country.
We didn’t want to see civil war. We didn’t want to see systemic collapse. We didn’t want to see a mass migration event. You’ve seen none of these things. pic.twitter.com/87S0YZphWs
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 30, 2026
SECRETARY RUBIO: For the first time in decades, Venezuela is now selling their oil in the global market at full market price. The money is coming back to Venezuela and being spent for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. 💪 pic.twitter.com/NwGAwZ0GQf
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 30, 2026
SECRETARY RUBIO: You’re seeing civil life come back to life in Venezuela. Independent media is now allowed to operate. Political prisoners have been released. Political parties are forming again. People are speaking and participating in public life. pic.twitter.com/6RfexVkyGo
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 30, 2026
SECRETARY RUBIO: In order for Venezuela to fulfill its economic potential, it has to have a stable democratic government that people are willing to invest in the economy because they know they’ll be protected by laws and legitimacy.
We’re well on our way to achieving this. pic.twitter.com/MUlXkjs5pl
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 30, 2026
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