The warning came amid reports of armed militias.
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife appeared in a federal court in New York City on Monday, following their capture by U.S. forces over the weekend in a military operation in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Following the operation, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would "run" Venezuela for an unspecified "period of time."
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been sworn in as interim leader to lead the country after what the Venezuelan Supreme Court described as Maduro's "kidnapping."
Rubio spoke about the years of prosecution and international action against the Maduro government.
"I want to be clear about one thing, Nicolas Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this," he said. "He was provided multiple very, very, very generous offers, and chose instead to act like a wild man."
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praised the U.S. operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
He also praised Trump's leadership and praised the actions as "America first."
"As the President said, our adversaries remain on notice. America can project our will anywhere, anytime," Hegseth said.
"President Trump is deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence to our country, deadly serious about stopping the flow of drugs and poison to our people, deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us and deadly serious about reestablishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere," he added.
The president announced that the U.S. will be "running the country" as it transitions into new leadership.
"We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind," he said.
Trump added that the oil business in Venezuela was "a bust," and that American oil companies will be spending "billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country."
Maduro is expected to arrive at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to an FBI plane en route to New York, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
-ABC News' Pierre Thomas, Sam Sweeney and Katherine Faulders
