Trump's team gets payback for Rubio on Venezuelan assassination plot

By MARC CAPUTO 05/22/2018 05:13 AM EDT Updated 05/22/2018 06:16 AM EDT

When one of Venezuela’s top leaders was suspected of conspiring to assassinate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio last year, the reaction of the United States was uncharacteristically tame.

Stiffer sanctions against Venezuela languished at the National Security Council. And Diosdado Cabello Rondon, the vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, wasn’t touched by targeted sanctions even though the U.S. government has accused him of being a narco-trafficker. But all of that changed in the past five days as Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s new Secretary of State, and National Security Adviser John Bolton began flexing their muscles in the run-up to Sunday’s elections in Venezuela — elections that the U.S. government called a “sham” perpetrated by “kleptocracy.”

On Friday, Cabello and his relatives had his assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury, and on Monday further U.S. investments in Venezuela were limited as the one-two punch of sanctions heralded a hawkish new era for the Trump administration, while revealing an enhanced role for Rubio as a Trump foreign policy emissary and ally.

Rubio, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, credited Pompeo, Bolton and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for changing the direction of U.S. policy in the region to further isolate Venezuela’s totalitarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. And he took a not-so-subtle shot at former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his allies for almost scuttling the sanctions.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/22/rubio-venezuela-trump-plot-602658