On the night table: Alan Doyle

Experienced imperialists understand that you can’t just take over a country and expect it to run itself. It takes time and work to turn it into an obedient and profitable colony and two months is not enough. Donald Trump moved on to his next target too soon and given how Iran’s been working out for him, he probably hasn’t thought of Venezuela in months.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acts as Trump’s viceroy for Venezuela, hasn’t been there since the U.S. kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in January. (In fact, he may never have been there at all — I can find no evidence of it.) But he does think about Venezuela. In fact, he controls the country very tightly from his Washington office.

He and Trump’s choice for interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, talk online every day, we are told. (She was the vice-president under Maduro, so she was the obvious choice if Trump wanted a local collaborator with supporters in the army and the secret police.) Rubio collects the government’s income and he tells her what she can spend her share on.

It’s an awkward arrangement, because the cabinet is still the core Chavista leaders, minus only Maduro himself. Trump thinks Rodríguez is a “terrific person” and doesn’t worry about elections: Venezuelans “wouldn’t even know how to have an election right now.” But Rubio understands that they really do expect an election to be part of the “transition.”

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