Venezuela’s María Corina Machado Returned to Venezuela. Marco Rubio Has a Warning About Democracy.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that street protests will not bring democracy to Venezuela, signaling the Trump administration's unease with opposition leader María Corina Machado's push for elections in 2027 following her return to the country.

Rubio did not mention Machado by name during his remarks to reporters, which took place a day after the exiled opposition leader returned to Caracas to a jubilant reception. She has demanded for a faster vote and criticized a major U.S. oil deal with Venezuela's current interim government, putting administration officials on edge, Axios reported.

"You're not going to street-protest your way into a democracy," Rubio said. The secretary's remarks exposed a dispute over the pace of Venezuela's political transition. Machado and U.S. officials agree that elections are necessary, but the administration has not committed to her proposed 2027 timetable.

A White House source familiar with Rubio's thinking told the outlet that officials view Venezuela as a major foreign policy achievement for President Donald Trump and are concerned that Machado could disrupt the progress they say has been made.

"Venezuela is the top foreign policy achievement of this administration, and if the progress we made gets undone and Machado is a spoiler, nobody wins," the source said.

U.S. officials want several changes before Venezuelans head to the polls, beginning with reforms to the Supreme Court and the National Electoral Council. Both institutions are staffed with loyalists of former authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who was seized by U.S. forces on January 3 and brought to New York to face narcotrafficking charges.

The State Department hopes a new Supreme Court will be selected by the end of the year and a reconstituted electoral council will be in place early next year. Venezuela's debt presents another obstacle as the country owes an estimated $300 billion, more than its gross domestic product. Rubio did not specifically discuss the debt during Monday's briefing.

A senior State Department official also raised the need to reform Venezuela's security services, warning that an elected government could struggle if those forces refused to follow its orders. "If you want a democratically elected government to succeed, you don't want them to inherit an economic apocalypse that brings it down," the official said, according to a transcript of the briefing.

Rubio did not provide a date for an election, but said the administration would not allow Venezuela's current government, headed by former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, to delay indefinitely. "What if they just try to wait us out for two years? That's not going to happen," he said. "We have timelines that are agreed to, and so far they've met every one of the timelines."

State Department officials told Axios that Rodríguez would have to declare a vacancy in the presidency to trigger an election six months later. Under the most optimistic scenario, that could allow a vote as early as June, although administration officials said it could take place in 2027 or 2028.

Rodríguez and Machado have made their opposition to each other clear. On Monday, Rodríguez suggested that Machado should feel regret for supporting the U.S. military operation that led to Maduro's capture.

Rubio said he was judging Rodríguez by her actions, pointing to what he described as the elimination of Iranian and Cuban influence in Venezuela and the extradition of former Maduro ally Alex Saab, who is cooperating with authorities against the former president.

"If at the end of the day we have a new Supreme Court, a new Electoral Council, a new election, and a new system of government, that's what we want," Rubio said. He added that changes to Venezuela's electoral infrastructure needed to happen quickly under the administration's established timelines. Anyone who derails that process, he said, would be "doing great harm to Venezuela."