With the situation growing worse in Venezuela as the economy continues to plummet and food reserves growing short, two congresswomen from Florida brought out a resolution last week expressing their concerns and taking aim at the Maduro regime.
Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen unveiled their resolution on Thursday “expressing profound concern about the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, urging the release of political prisoners, and calling for respect of constitutional and democratic processes.”
The resolution was sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has the support of more than half of the Florida delegation as Republicans Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Carlos Curbelo, Ron DeSantis, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ted Yoho and Democrats Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Alan Grayson, Alcee Hastings, Patrick Murphy and Frederica Wilson co-sponsored the resolution.
Wasserman Schultz, who introduced the resolution, made her case for it on Friday.
“As a U.S. representative with one of the largest communities of Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans in the United States, I am appalled by the continued abuses of the Maduro government against its citizens,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Maduro has defied the Venezuelan constitution by first attempting to reject the more than 1.8 million signatures on recall referendum petitions and then seeking to directly undermine the National Assembly by removing Democratic Unity Roundtable legislators. He has taken these actions while holding 85 political prisoners, including Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos.
"But the effects of Maduro’s catastrophic rule don’t stop there,” Wasserman Schultz added. “Under his watch, Venezuelans have seen an utter lack of basic medical supplies and pharmaceutical drugs; empty food shelves and sky-rocketing prices for essential items; a climate of violence in Caracas that has led to the highest per capita homicide rate in the world; and public officials’ involvement in corruption and illegal narcotics trafficking.
"I stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people as they suffer through this heartbreaking crisis, and am proud to introduce this bipartisan resolution with my South Florida colleague Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to send a clear message to President Maduro and his cronies that oppression, human rights abuse and thwarting democracy is unacceptable and has consequences,” she concluded.
Ros-Lehtinen, one of the leading Republicans on Capitol Hill on international issues and a former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also weighed in on Friday.
"I am honored to join my Florida congressional colleague Debbie Wasserman Schultz in introducing an important resolution to express our concern over the deteriorating crisis in Venezuela,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “Under Maduro’s Venezuela we are experiencing unjust detainments of Venezuelan political prisoners and U.S. citizens, the lack of food and basic medical needs in the country, violations of human rights, and stalling of the recall referendum for this year. This bipartisan resolution sends a strong message to the people of Venezuela that we stand with them in solidarity as they struggle for their democracy under Maduro’s oppressive policies.”
