Marco Rubio Criticizes Venezuelan Regime After CNN Kicked Out

Already facing criticism over their crackdown on protesters demanding more democratic reforms, the Venezuelan government kicked CNN and CNN en Espal out of the nation. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the Venezuelan regime on Friday.

We must assume that Nicol Maduro is kicking out CNN, CNN en Espal and other foreign journalists as a precursor to even more violent and deadly tactics against innocent Venezuelans, Rubio said. This press assault is a worrying sign that Maduro intends to dig in and step up the violence with the false belief that the world will never find out because hes kicking out journalists.

This isnt simply an assault against press freedom, Rubio added. It now poses an even graver danger to Venezuelan demonstrators who will now have fewer news outlets to tell the story of whats happening there to the rest of the world. We cannot allow this to have a chilling effect on press coverage of whats going on in Venezuela. Nicol Maduro and his government should realize that Venezuelans will not be silenced, will continue sharing their stories through online media and other means, and that news outlets and defenders of freedom everywhere will continue magnifying his atrocities for all the world to see.

The international community, particularly Latin American governments who are supposed to defend press freedom in accordance with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, should condemn this move by Nicol Maduro, Rubio continued. The Maduro governments legitimacy is eroding every single day. Nicol Maduro needs to realize that he does not have an image or press problem that he can easily expel from his country. He has a repression problem, and the Venezuelan people arent standing for it.