Marco Rubio
In the reporting: Secretary of State who, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, signed the Venezuela oil deal, signed the Armenia corridor agreement, and was named to the Board of Peace executive board.
Last updated Nov. 6, 2026
This page collects what Letters of Junius has published about this person’s public role, and grows as the reporting does. Inclusion is not an allegation of wrongdoing. Where someone has denied or answered a claim, the response appears with it. Each entry links to the original source and to the article it appears in.
Venezuela: the oil agreement and the plan for the country
- Reported
In the early hours of Jan. 3, 2026, as American forces were seizing Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, the Venezuelan billionaire Alejandro Betancourt was in touch with Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president about to take over the country. A Betancourt ally told Axios that Rodríguez at first believed the Americans had killed Maduro, and that Betancourt calmed her and helped persuade her to talk to Rubio.
Source: Axios. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
- Reported
Rubio's plan for Venezuela, laid out in January 2026, runs in three phases: stabilization, recovery and then transition, with no early elections.
Source: IANS. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
- Reported
In January 2026, Rubio told Congress that Venezuela would submit monthly budgets for American approval.
Source: Semafor. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
- Reported
On Aug. 30, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an 18-page oil agreement with a Venezuelan billionaire, Alejandro Betancourt, ProPublica reported. The fields are run by Betancourt's company, North American Blue Energy Partners. The United States can take 35 percent of the venture's parent company, which is registered in Barbados, through warrants priced at a penny a share, in a transaction a Pentagon office is to carry out.
Source: ProPublica. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
- Reported
After the opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Oct. 25, 2026, Rubio credited her safe return to US-backed reconciliation talks. As of October 2026, the Venezuelan government was holding those talks with a different opposition faction, and they had ended a third round that month without an election schedule.
Source: Latin Times. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
The Board of Peace
- Confirmed
On Jan. 16, 2026, the White House named the executive board of the Board of Peace, the international body Trump chairs. Its members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Marc Rowan, chief executive of the investment firm Apollo Global Management.
Source: The White House. From: Plan B for Gaza.
- Confirmed
In June 2026, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked Rubio whether the board could use US funds to pay Trump, as its chairman, while he is president or after he leaves office, her office said.
Source: Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From: Plan B for Gaza.
The Trump Route corridor in Armenia
- Reported
The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity is a transit corridor through southern Armenia that links Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan. Under terms Washington and Yerevan announced in January 2026, the United States will hold 74 percent of the company that will build and run it, with rights for an initial 49 years, JAMnews reported.
Source: JAMnews. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
- Confirmed
Rubio signed the agreement in June 2026.
Source: Armenian Foreign Ministry. From: The Same Deal, Made Eight Times.
Emergency arms sales to the Gulf
- Reported
On March 19, 2026, nearly three weeks into the war on Iran, the administration approved more than $16.5 billion in arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan, using an emergency waiver from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to skip the usual congressional review, Al-Monitor reported.
Source: Al-Monitor. From: The War Behind the War.
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Photo: U.S. Department of State, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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