As rationale for the U.S. capture of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026, Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida repeatedly claimed that Maduro had "put out a hit" — an assassination order — on Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he was a senator.
For example, during a Fox News appearance on Jan. 4, Luna said (starting at 0:42):
What President Trump did — in addition to liberating the people of Venezuela — also to, I believe, has, you know, ensured Marco Rubio's safety. A lot of the American people are unaware that a couple of years ago, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was then a senator, that Nicolás Maduro had actually put out a hit on him, and that doesn't just go away because he came secretary of state, so I think Marco Rubio's sleeping well tonight.
The Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus of House Republicans, published a news release on Jan. 3 in which Luna made the same claim. She also said it during a Jan. 3 appearance on MS NOW — formerly MSNBC — where she added that she considered the alleged hit an "act of war" (at 4:17). Her assertion spread on
There was no available evidence Luna was right. The Department of Justice indictment of Maduro, as MS NOW anchor Ayman Mohyeldin pointed out (from 5:08), made no mention of an alleged hit the Venezuelan president put out on Rubio.
Luna may have mistakenly referenced a 2017 Miami Herald report that said U.S. intelligence had determined Venezuelan politician Diosdado Cabello "may have" put a kill order out on Rubio, then a senator. The Herald's story did not say Maduro knew about the alleged hit. (Additional reputable news outlets such as Politico corroborated the Herald's story; Cabello reportedly dismissed the allegations.)
Experts told Snopes that if the order was real, Maduro may not have known about it, given Cabello's significant power in the country. As of this writing, Cabello is Venezuela's interior minister.
In an emailed statement, David Leatherwood, a spokesman for Luna's office, appeared to reference the 2017 report, backtracking on Luna's initial claim, in which she alleged that Maduro, specifically, put out the hit.
"Secretary Rubio, when he was a Senator, had a security detail assigned to him based on real threats to him from the Maduro regime," he wrote. "Reach out to the secretary's team to confirm."
The DOJ and the secretary of state's office did not immediately respond to requests for more information to verify Luna's comments. Given that the allegation may have involved sensitive national intelligence, it was not possible to independently verify whether there was any truth to Luna's claim. As such, we have not given it a rating.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in a federal court in New York on Jan. 5, 2026, The Associated Press reported.
No evidence Maduro, specifically, put hit out on Rubio
According the DOJ's indictment, the United States charged Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices (see pages 18 to 23 for the entire set of charges). Per the document, Maduro has not been charged with attempting to assassinate Rubio or putting a "hit" out on him.
Notably, the document also charged Cabello with the same crimes while making no mention of the alleged hit on Rubio.
What about Cabello's reported hit on Rubio?
In the 2017 Miami Herald article, the newspaper reported that it obtained a memo which indicated Cabello "may have put out an order to kill Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a fervent critic of the South American country's government, according to intelligence obtained by the U.S."
The Herald's article noted that "federal authorities couldn't be sure at the time whether the uncorroborated threat was real," but took it seriously enough that Rubio was seen with a security detail.
Therefore, Luna's claim that Rubio experienced "real threats" from the "Maduro regime" is also questionable, given the available evidence.
Additionally, Snopes could not independently verify the contents of
The fact that Cabello — a former military officer and, at the time, a lawmaker from the same party as Maduro — may have put out a kill order on Rubio does not automatically mean Maduro knew or approved of such an action. The Herald's report noted that the U.S. "believes Cabello controls all of Venezuela's security forces."
Mark Jones, a professor at Rice University and expert on political institutions in Latin America, said via email: "Cabello had, and still has, enough autonomy and power where he could have put out a hit on Rubio without Maduro's prior knowledge or approval."
In sum …
Luna's claim that Maduro put a hit out on Rubio appeared to rest on a reputable 2017 Miami Herald article reporting that U.S. intelligence believed, but was not entirely sure, that a different Venezuelan lawmaker, with substantial power over the country's armed forces, may have put out an order to kill Rubio. If true, there was no available evidence Cabello sought Maduro's approval or that the Venezuelan president knew about the alleged hit.