This didn't make headlines, but on Thursday, the Congressional Western Hemisphere Subcommittee held a hearing: "Latin America After the Fall of Maduro." The guest of honor was Michael Kozak, a Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, and he had a lot of interesting things to say about Venezuela, Cuba, and Donald Trump and Marco Rubio's plans for the future of the Western Hemisphere during his testimony.
Subcommittee chairwoman Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) did not hold back when questioning Kozak on topics that I know a lot of people in the United States are curious about — including many of you, as I see them in my emails and comments every week.
First up, Salazar made it quite clear that "interim president" Delcy Rodríguez is not someone whom people in the United States or in Venezuela trust. She's just as much a part of the problem as Nicolás Maduro was. Or, as the congresswoman put it, "We do not like Delcy. We don't like dealing with Delcy. Delcy is part of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. Now, I understand that we have to deal with her..."
Kozak did not disagree. As a matter of fact, he made it pretty clear that Trump and Rubio don't trust Delcy either — for all the positive things they say about her, they trust the leverage they hold over her and the rest of the regime. Of course, many of us here already figured that out — it's exactly why I call her "MAGA Delcy" or "Trump's pawn" — but it was nice to hear a State Department official confirm it.
Kozak also confirmed that we've entered phase two of Rubio's three-phase plan. As we've heard Rubio say, phase one was about stabilization — ensuring we avoid civil war, security breakdown, or more mass migration in a post-Maduro world. That didn't happen, and both Kozak and Rubio in recent days have said that phase is over. Phase two is recovery.
"Phase two, as I've talked about, is recovery and, and reconciliation, so those are two things that go together, the recovery of the economy by getting oil in-industry revenues flowing back in again, and at the same time, as part of phase two, is the political reconciliation that will allow you to get the steps I just mentioned, and then be able to move to elections," Kozak said during Thursday's hearing. He also reiterated that we have "significant" control over the country's oil revenue at the moment, which, if you'll recall, is now added to a trust for the Venezuelan people at the U.S. Treasury Department and controlled by Rubio and Scott Bessent. Those funds no longer prop up the regime.
"We have to force them for the reconciliation. They're just trying to buy time," Salazar said, adding, "They don't wanna reconcile. They're Maduro."
She's right, and Kozak agreed. On the topic of future elections in Venezuela, he said a date has not yet been set, but "We have conditions that will enable an election and bring about a transition to democracy, and so we're looking at the milestones along the way."
He said opposition leaders who want to participate must be able to return to Venezuela safely before that can happen. And while progress has been made in that area — he mentioned the release of political prisoners and the amnesty law that has supposedly benefited thousands — there are more milestones to meet. I'd add that opposition leader María Corina Machado's Vente Venezuela political party was able to open its Caracas office once again without intimidation in recent weeks as another good sign.
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But for what it's worth, there are still many political prisoners detained. The last official count from earlier this month was 485.
So what are some other milestones we must reach before elections are held? The formation of a new, credible National Electoral Council (CNE) is one. The current CNE is as corrupt as the rest of the regime — it's how Maduro "won" so many elections. Other goals include cleaning and modernizing the voter registry and new election machinery, and the presence of international observers. And, of course, full participation rights for opposition leaders, including Machado.
Kozak also mentioned Cuba and how this is all part of Trump's broader efforts to reassert the Monroe Doctrine.
"The reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine is helping eliminate the influence of global adversaries in our region and protect the American homeland," he said. "We are helping Venezuela transition from a criminal enabler to a responsible partner. With Maduro’s arrest, Cuba lost one of its last benefactors. The end of massive subsidies at the expense of the Venezuelan people exposed the Cuban communist regime’s economic failings. President Trump has made clear that we will not tolerate this threat on our doorstep any longer. Now is the time for drastic political and economic reforms in Cuba."
"A few days ago, the main Cuban puppet said on television that he was not stepping down from power, that he wasn't going anywhere. Well, Maduro said the same thing a few months ago, and look where he is now," Salazar said of Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban "president" who appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday for a softball interview.
Kozak said that the U.S. remains in talks with interlocutors from the Cuban regime, but that these talks are overseen directly by Trump and Rubio. He also confirmed that recent MSM reports of making business deals with the Castro family are not true, and that the only acceptable conclusion is for the Castros to leave the country, so that Cuba can start anew.
Meanwhile, this week, Machado, the person who will most likely be Venezuela's next real president, is touring Europe and meeting with numerous leaders, like Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron. Apparently, Spain's socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, invited Machado to meet with him, but she respectfully declined. She has said that at this moment, certain meetings are not convenient to the objective of Venezuela's freedom. I believe she met with some prominent conservatives in Spain, however.
🚨 | María Corina Machado y Giorgia Meloni.
— Orlando Avendaño (@OrlvndoA) April 16, 2026
Se comparten regalos. pic.twitter.com/vE6CSh2Jep
It's often hard for me to showcase just how beloved Machado is by the Venezuelan people, but here is a video of her doing an interview with the Italian broadcaster Mediaset, and several Venezuelans apparently work for the company. They were brought to tears by her mere presence and promise to "take them all back" with her. This woman is Venezuela's authentic leadership — no doubt about that.
María Corina Machado recibe a venezolanos que trabajan en mediaset, el medio de comunicación donde le entrevistaban: “Me los voy a llevar a todos de vuelta” pic.twitter.com/GDMfj7cqGH
— Emmanuel Rincón (@EmmaRincon) April 17, 2026
I just did a Google search, and, aside from a brief Bloomberg article that's locked behind a paywall and some article from a source I'd never heard of with the misleading headline "U.S. Has No Date Set for Venezuelan Elections," there really hasn't been any media coverage of this hearing where a senior State Department official covered some very big topics and put a lot of rumors that you will find in MSM headlines to rest. Could it be that the U.S. media isn't interested in pointing out when things are going well for the Trump administration? I think we all know the answer to that, and it's quite shameful.
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