NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 22: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a multilateral meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council during the 81st session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters on September 22, 2026 in New York City. World leaders have gathered in New York for the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, with this year's global issues ranging from the threat of artificial intelligence to the continued wars in Ukraine and Gaza. (Credit: Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Marco Rubio just tied Venezuela's next election to its balance sheet. Speaking in New York on Sept. 23, the U.S. secretary of state said Washington wants an "enduring republic", not merely a ballot that a bankrupt government could not survive.
He named no election date. The sequencing he laid out, with debt relief and institution-building running in parallel, suggests a slower path to the polls, and it puts a restructuring of $150 billion or more at the center of the transition.
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