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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has set out the three things Venezuela needs before it can hold a credible election: a new Supreme Court, an independent electoral council and a free press. Speaking in Paris on Monday during his visit to France, Rubio said the three are essential to a vote Venezuelans can trust, as the Trump administration presses Caracas to replace the institutions built under Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio said the United States is on pace to have new Supreme Court magistrates in place by the middle of December, with a new electoral council created very quickly afterwards. “These are two things that are essential,” he said. Under the plan U.S. officials have described, Venezuela’s interim government would then formally declare the presidency permanently vacant, triggering a six-month window for a presidential election.
“There are three things you need for an election to work in Venezuela,” Rubio said, listing a new Supreme Court, a nonpolitical electoral council and a free press. He has argued that the electoral machinery left behind by Maduro was designed to manipulate elections and cannot be trusted to run a valid vote, pointing to a Supreme Court willing to rule in the regime’s favour and an electoral council with the power to bar candidates from the ballot.
The conditions build on weeks of U.S.-backed negotiations between Venezuela’s interim government, led by Delcy Rodríguez, and opposition representatives. Rodríguez took over as interim president after Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in January and transferred to New York to face criminal proceedings. Opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela, and Rubio has said Washington negotiated her return with the interim authorities weeks ago.
In an interview with The New York Times last week, Rubio said elections in Venezuela would ideally be held in 2027, but he declined to guarantee a vote before President Donald Trump leaves office. He also named reform of the security forces and restructuring Venezuela’s debt, estimated at more than $200 billion, as key priorities, and said the support of the armed forces would be essential for any future government.
Rubio has also said candidates must be able to reach voters and parties must be able to organise freely for any vote to be credible, and has pointed to Venezuelan outlets barred from broadcasting for nearly seven years resuming operations in recent weeks. Supporters of the plan argue that rebuilding the institutions could restore public confidence in the electoral process; critics question how far U.S. influence should reach into Venezuela’s transition and insist any reforms must be genuinely independent and driven by Venezuelans themselves.