A bipartisan group of seven U.S. senators introduced a resolution this Wednesday that demands a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela through free, fair, and transparent presidential elections, and calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country.
The initiative was led by Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) and Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat from New Hampshire), with the support of Senators Tim Kaine, Rick Scott, Dick Durbin, Adam Schiff, and Jacky Rosen, and was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The text states that Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed the interim presidency of Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, during Operation Absolute Resolve, "does not have an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people, has not taken significant steps toward the calling of free and fair elections, and is widely regarded as incapable of winning any such election."
The resolution also warns that any arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, death, or other serious harm suffered by candidates or political actors —explicitly mentioning María Corina Machado— would be presumed to have been committed with the knowledge or approval of senior officials in the Venezuelan government, and would require Washington to take measures to hold the perpetrators accountable.
The document also recalls that "the structures that have sustained persecution in Venezuela for years have not been dismantled," and reaffirms the U.S. policy of supporting a peaceful democratic transition.
The resolution comes at a time of tension between Congress and the White House regarding the pace and conditions of that transition.
Recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the process should take "months, not years", and in January he testified before the Senate that the goal of the Trump administration is a Venezuela that is "friendly, stable, prosperous, and democratic," with "all elements of society represented in free and fair elections".
However, on July 24, Donald Trump himself generated controversy by stating that Venezuela "is not yet ready" to hold elections, although he praised Rodríguez, claiming he was doing "a fantastic job."
In parallel, formal negotiations began on August 1 between representatives of chavismo, led by Jorge Rodríguez, and an opposition delegation headed by Dinorah Figuera, with the declared aim of moving towards an electoral transition. The U.S. expressed satisfaction with these negotiations on Tuesday.
Machado and the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia conditioned their support for the process on concrete and verifiable results: the release of political prisoners, the restoration of democratic institutions, guarantees for all actors, and a clear presidential electoral timeline.
The immediate background to all this pressure is the Venezuelan presidential election on July 28, 2024, in which the State Department concluded that González Urrutia received the majority of the votes and that Maduro did not win the elections.
The Senate resolution also recalls that Machado won the opposition primaries on October 22, 2023, with more than 90% of the votes, but was disqualified for 15 years by the Venezuelan Supreme Court.
Rubio had announced in July the formal start of the transition process and described a three-phase plan —stabilization, economic recovery, and transition to democratic elections— that Congress is now seeking to protect with this bipartisan resolution to ensure the administration does not back down on democratic demands from the Venezuelan government.
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